7 Khoon Maaf - review

Susanna Anna Marie Johannes has a problem - 'duniya ke saare galat aadmi uski kismat mein likhe the'. And she is a survivor who would rather kill her wayward husbands rather than leave them. So you have Priyanka Chopra giving it her all as the tormented Susanna whose hope for a lasting love withers with age. Husband after husband proves undeserving of her love and is summarily disposed of.

At a young age she marries the older Major Edwin Rodrigues (Neil Nitin Mukesh) who stifles her spirit with his insane jealousy and egotism. Next in line is rockstar Jimmy Stetson aka Jamshed Rathore (John Abraham) who woos her with his guitar but falls quickly to drug addiction. Poet Wasiullah aka Musafir (Irfan Khan) appears to be a harbour for peaceful love but turns out to be a sadomasochist.

By now Susanna is middle aged and a more than a little disillusioned but this doesn't stop the long list of men wanting to marry her. Russian spy/scientist Nicolai Vronski courts her with 'shudh' Hindi and Bollywood dialogues till she agrees to marry him. Only to realise that he is duping her and is already married. To stave off a police investigation, Susanna is forced to marry the exploitative and horny Inspector Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor). He is sent to meet his maker at the earliest opportunity. The elderly grieving black widow is now tortured enough to make a suicide attempt. In this she is thwarted by Dr. Madhusudan Tarafdar (Naseeruddin Shah) who is a comforting mix of allopathy, naturopathy and spirituality rolled into one. That is until he tries to kill Susanna for her money. Susanna replies with a game of Russian Roulette revealing her frustration with her own accursed life and Tarafdar joins the other husbands. By now unable to handle so much pain, Susanna burns down her house and is believed to be dead herself.
Susanna's story is told through the eyes of the young orphan boy, Arun, who she brings up in her household and who eventually becomes a Forensic scientist (Vivaan Shah) seeking to confirm her death. His love for and worshipful obsession with her leads him to Pondicherry where he finds Susanna alive and well and about to be a 'bride' for the seventh time...

Vishal Bharadwaj's latest offering is based on a short story by Ruskin Bond titled "Susanna's Seven husbands" and to give the devil his due, Vishal again tries something different with his black-widow story. There is a lot of detailing like topical references to Babri Masjid dispute, the Berlin Wall coming down, the IC 814 hijacking, shootouts at Mumbai etc. to show the passage of time. The curiosity value for the audience is in figuring out why and how the next husband will be bumped off. The devices range from panthers, to pistols, to even Viagra! Priyanka Chopra puts in a very commendable performance and is undoubtedly one of the finer actresses of her generation (just imagine Katrina trying to pull off something like this and you will know what I mean). Among the husbands, Irfan and Naseer stand out with their assured presence despite being just a part of a much larger whole. Ruskin Bond himself has a cameo in the movie. As does Konkona Sen Sharma in yet another unaffected and endearing performance. Usha Uthup however is completely wasted in her role as Susanna's macabre maid.

The movie however, is just not engrossing enough. The first half is especially tedious with long winded and unnecessary sequences like the fight between the Major and Gunga the servant and Jimmy's raucous songs. The actual killing of the husbands is also hardly shown and is more often done by her servants than by Susanna herself.
Bharadwaj's big problem here is that the transition from the pages of a book to the big screen does not happen smoothly. One is constantly left wondering how much better it would have been to read the story to experience its darkness and hidden spaces better. Watching the dimly lit sequences, the Greek chorus like characters of Susanna's servants who help her with each crime, Arun the sly kid whose love for Susanna borders on Oedipal and Susanna herself who appears to have an Elektra complex make one feel like maybe a play would have worked better than a movie. The need to justify Susanna's actions in true Hindi cinema tradition also feels forced. I wonder what the movie would have been like if she were to gleefully dispose of her husbands rather than make it seem like a painful duty.

Falling into the grey area between 'artsy' and mainstream cinema does not work so well this time. When the movie ended the confusion of the audience was almost palpable.
So am left wishing for a more tightly knit script, sharper dialogues and better makeup for Priyanka (who looks hideous in most scenes).

Rating: 5/10

Lafangey Parindey - the review

Lafangey Parindey - such a strange name. Like the director couldn't decide which word he liked better and decided to go with both. The movie is literally about Lafangey (or Rascals) and figuratively about Parindey (or Birds). The Lafangey are One Shot Nandu (Neil Nitin Mukesh) and his sidekicks who spend their time pumping iron in some Wadi in Mumbai. Pinky Palkar (Deepika Padukone) symbolises Parindey with her aspirations of leaving behind the wadi life and moving up in life with her dancing skills.

As Nandu tries to flee after helping out in a goon's murder, he rams his car into Pinky who loses her eyesight as a result. To assuage his guilt, Nandu teaches her to cope with her blindness and she teaches him to skate and dance. Quite naturally, the feisty Pinky and the taciturn Nandu fall in love. They are all set to compete in "India's got Talent" when trouble rears its ugly head in paradise.

The movie is a good watch and the fast pace of the narrative helps. More than anything, the backdrop of the story with its lower class setting, its tomboyish, aggressive heroine and its local tapori boxing hero hold one's interest. It is a visual relief after all the beauty and gloss that mainstream Bollywood throws at you.
The thing is, that this is the kind of movie that can never really aim to be a blockbuster with its limited scope and premise. Its almost as if the creators thought Deepika and Neil would look great dancing together on skates and made up the rest of the story from there. Its lead actors are also not talented enough to elevate the film above the subject.

Deepika though much improved, continues to find it difficult to establish a connect with the audience. Her dialogues often fall flat to the floor and stay there. She does look the part to a T though. Neil Nitin Mukesh looks hot as the local boxer but sadly his contribution stops there. He is unable to bring any kind of nuance to his role and simply goes through the motions. He also seems too refined and soft spoken at times to be really convincing as the tough talking action hero. Many models have started acting. Maybe Neil can now start the opposite trend. He looks so much better than he acts.

The climax of the movie is also very weak. Shiamak Davar, Juhi Chawla and Javed Jaffrey are brought on as judges of "India's got Talent" and don't have a single line of dialogue to mouth after the all-important final performance! They just wipe their tears! I mean come on! The ease with which the cops capitulate is also completely absurd. Director Pradeep Sarkar seems to lose the plot towards the end. In fact he could have had a better plot. To his credit, he never dips into the melodrama so readily available when you have a blind heroine and a hero who gets beaten up for a living. Huge really when you think that this guy made the totally bullshit Laaga Chunri mein Daaga - a regressive melodrama if ever there was one.

So coming back to Lafangey Parindey. I liked the fast pace, I liked the restraint (coming from Yash Raj that too!), I liked the characterisation, I liked the setting and I liked Nandu and Pinky's love story. So a 6.5/10.

Go watch this movie if you have the time. Go with no high expectations and it will entertain you.