With his latest outing I guess Vishal Bhardwaj is trying to achieve the mass acceptance which Kaminey didn’t get and in doing so he has made an excessively long, never ending movie. The special thing about Vishal sir’s movie is the fact that they are not simple or shallow, watch them any number of times and you’ll find something new in it and that is where 7 Khoon Maaf loses the battle. The movie is excessively simple. There isn’t any string in the movie which attaches the audience to it.
Susana’s story of her search for true love and her failure to do so never makes you feel her misery baring for a couple of times. All you get in the end is a series of repetitive events. The movie tries hard to juggle between a drama and a dark comedy and finally fails to be either of them.
Another trademark of Vishal Bhardwaj’s movies are his dialogues but barring a few lines you find that magical touch missing and the dialogues are a bit too “filmy”.
Having said that, it’s not a bad movie. There are some great moments on screen, like the one where Major Rodriguez caresses Susana with his amputated limb or that genius climax with that haunting track “Yeshu” in the background and that beautifully shot “Bekaraan” which actually creates a magical atmosphere. But moments like these are few and far in between.
As Susana, Priyanka Chopra tries a bit hard to make her character look like a vulnerable woman with a stubborn child like heart. Some of the scenes where she shows her mettle are the ones with Anu Kapoor, the scene at the hospital and her final scene with Vronsky, but my favorite is the one where she kills Naseer Sa’ab.
Among the husbands Anu Kapoor gives a charming performance as the caricaturish officer. Irrfan Khan as the poet by day and sadist beast by night gives a restrained performance. Aleksandr Dyachenko as the Russian hubby is very sweet. John Abraham even with his limited role gives a wooden show with thankfully very few dialogues. Naseer Sa’ab doesn’t have much to do and has a different approach to every scene. Neil Nitin Mukesh actually looks “adamkhor” as the major but his dialogue delivery is ghastly. The show stopper of the movie is Vivaan Shah who shines in each and every scene and gives a pitch perfect performance.
In the end I’ll say that 7 Khoon Maaf isn’t a bad movie but a painstakingly boring one, so much so that during the interval when it is said that there 4 more to go you wonder once that if it’s a threat.
Rating: **.5
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