Review of 7 Khoon Maaf

Ratings : 2.8

7 Khoon Maaf is outstanding venture in some cinematic sense of their own but from a common man or a general movie buff’s point of view the movie can be called as Boring. And even I am little bit disappointed… though I am a lover of offbit & different kind of art cinema, I did not find any thing to call as superb and interesting from the movie.

• Official Website: Link
• Banner: UTV Spotboy Motions Pvt Ltd, Vishal Bharadwaj Pictures
• Producer: Ronnie Screwwala, Vishal Bharadwaj
• Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
• Lead Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan Khan, Anu Kapoor, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Priyanka Chopra, Naseeruddin Shah, John Abraham
• Supporting Cast: Usha Uthup
• Story: Matthew Robbins, Vishal Bharadwaj
• Cinematography: Ranjan Palit
• Editor: Sreekar Prasad
• Background Score: Vishal Bharadwaj
• Action Choreography: Sham Kaushal
• Music Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
• Lyrics: Gulzar
• Facebook Page: Link
• Twitter: @7khoonmaafmovie
• Running time: 150 minutes
• Reviewer: DK
• Categories: Hindi Movies
• Genres: Dark Comedy

Story Treatment

The Movie discovers the journey of Sussana’s life, how she romances seven husbands for the quest of love .It also explores the psyches of Sussana and the reasons as to why she kills all her husbands. The movie is Based on Ruskin Bond’s novel ‘Sussana’s Seven Husbands’, 7 Khoon Maaf is another addition to the different kind of cinema the super talented Vishal Bhardawaj has introduced to the Indian audience. Those People who loved and understand Omkara, Kaminey and they sure will love ‘7 Khoon Maaf’. The characterization and the play of emotions have been very well brought out.  The beauty of the movie lies in the interconnections and complexities in relations shown between Sussana and her husbands. A film that is for a cult audience and kudos to Priyanka Chopra for carrying it off so well that you feel like you are on a journey with her, but a poignant one. 7 Khoon Maaf starts with Sussana Anna-Marie Johannes killing her sixth husband who has betrayed her and then Arun Kumar (Vivaan Shah) Sussana’s pal and child who is an orphan and taken care of by her goes into his flashback and narrates her painful life story. Arun now heads the forensic department and has been assigned the duty to find out if Sussana the murderer has died, otherwise she would be killed by the law. Arun in his fascination for his lady lord and love declares her dead knowing the fact that she is still alive looking for her seventh husband. ‘7 Khoon Maaf’ is undoubtedly Priyanka Chopra’s most challenging role by far as her character in the film ages from her early 20’s to her 65’s and the lady has accomplished this humungous task with poise. But the icing on the cake was definitely Vivaan Shah who has definitely got acting in his genes, born to talented parents, Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah. From the entire bunch of Husband the best one remains Anu Kapoor and Irrfan Khan, both the actor’s moving performance is delight to watch. Nil Nitin Mukesh did his part very well but John Aabraham could have been much better and irritates in the small part he had. The supporting cast with Usha Uthup as the maid and partner in crime along with their two other secret-keepers have done a tremendous job.

Technical cut

Vishal Bhardawaj is one of the finest we have in the industry with pulling the film reasonably well and entertaining some with his dark humor that is his forte.  But this view was not expected form a Director of that quality and coming up with a very questionable & week kind of script. The movie starts up very well but looses it grip after 30-45min, mainly because of no exciting twists & turn in its storyline.  But after saying all these things I sincerely appreciate Vishal Bhardwaj’s continuous & international effort of making movies inspired from the rich literature waiting to be explored by any other.  

Dialogues like ‘I want to drink his blood’, ‘Public mein Sanasani karne do’ are very effective and hard hitting. The camera work is experimental with usage of blur and moving images. . The background score and songs totally add magic to the film.

The music, which is given by Vishal Bharadwaj is fresh and unique. It will surely make music buffs furrow to its beats especially to the Indian version of Russian folk song ‘Darlinggg’. Out of the rest I liked ‘Bekaraan’, which was sung by Vishal him self. As usual the cinematography given by Vishal, is wonderful.

In Short(Ups & Downs) 

Ups

The movie can easily watchable because of wonderful performance delivered by Priyanka chopra and the way she portrayed the l;ife of a lonely ledy from her twenties to the late sixties is deserves appreciation,  no doubt she is no one Actress when to search act in a actress.  As I mention above Anu Kapoor and Irrfan was excellent in their parts. It is very impressive  the way  Vishal, tells tells you the time & year of each story, with the help of some T V shots, news clipping & from newpaper with some clearly readable headlines. And some bold bed room scene and the way the director canned the intimate scene of Priyanka with her few husband in the movie with great lighting & elegance, which is really at par with International standards.

Downs

There are some parts of the film, which though is reality, is very disturbing to watch. So it is definitely not recommended for people who have a soft heart. The flip side of love may not be appealing to many and there could have been some more variations in the grounds for killing her husbands since they appear to be a little unconvincing, certainly in case of Annu Kapoor , Aleksandr Dyachenko & Also Aleksandr. Priyanka is killing all her husbands with the help of her 3 domestic help as if there is no Law any where. Mainly After post interval film raises even more unanswered question till its climex and the ending leaves you with a strange kind of feeling of reaching no-where.

Verdicts :

 It is not a masterpiece and it is failed to satisfy the high expectation created by movie. If you are exciting to see an exciting thriller, a tense murder mystery, an investigative crime drama or a painful saga of a lonely lady, then you feel disappointed. But the film has quite a few strong points the performances being the highlight and of course the music of Darling….It may not fetch the positive feedback from the masses but will score with the urban audience, those who are great art movie lovers or festival movie hunter.

Detailed Ratings from scale of 5:

• Direction: 3.5
• Story: 1.5
• Lead Actors: 3.0
• Character Artists: 2.5
• Dialogues: 3.0
• Screenplay: 2.5
• Cinematography: 3.0
• Music Director: 3.0
• Lyrics: 3.0

Overall:- 2.8