Movie review - 7 Khoon Maaf (7KM) - 2011

There are some things one does as a matter of principle, read any book written by John Le Carré, listen to any music recorded by U2,  watch any movie in which Aamir Khan acts in – you get what I mean. Vishal Bhardwaj is fast getting a similar reputation, so it was with a sense of anticipation that I set out to watch his latest  movie, 7 Khoon Maaf (loosely translated as Seven Murders Forgiven in English) which is based on a short story by Ruskin Bond. The anticipation was tempered with some sense of foreboding as early reports had been very mixed.

Without too much suspense, I can reveal that I was very disappointed with the movie, though there are some points of interest. I can outline some part of the plot without spoiler alerts as the basic premise is well known. Priyanka Chopra plays the part of the black widow who serially murders her husband of the day. The count has mounted to six as the film opens and we are supposed to wonder about what is going to happen to the seventh (else the title has no meaning) which builds to the climax of the movie.

Sadly, the entire story never grips your attention. Husbands one and two (Neil Nitin Mukesh and John Abraham) get the longest screen time, probably because of their star value and the rest of the husbands get short shrift. Irrfan Khan looks confused on how to play his character, Annu Kapoor shines briefly, no idea why the story needed a white guy (and a Russian to boot) and Naseeruddin Shah wanders in and out in the blink of an eye.

Priyanka Chopra gets to play a character which ages during the movie, but she is no thespian and there are no light moments in the movie to showcase any other abilities. About the only positive is that the story always keeps moving forward and the movie does not slacken though there is next to no suspense and no plot complications to speak of. There is only the most obvious justifications for each murder (or death should one call it?), and no attempt on answering why an educated, well off woman like the character played by Priyanka Chopra is willing to take all the abuse and not have any remedy other than killing her husband and that too in very simplistic ways. The climax/ending took the cherry in my view and left me extremely unsatisfied with the resolution.

Lastly, the music is better than the movie, however the insertion of songs in the movie seem forced. Usha Uthup lends her unmistakable voice to Darling, though the song sounds better by itself than in the movie.

Some moments of unintentional hilarity during the movie were provided by my fellow cinema goers, one lady to my right was remarking on the salsa (it is actually a tango, there is no way one can confuse a salsa with a tango) early in the movie. Some ill-advised couples had brought children into the cinema hall (btw, the movie does have a justifiably Adult rating), what were they thinking ? A majority of the audience seemed to be comprised of older couples (this was a late night show on Friday, so guess it was put the kids to bed and off to the movies night!) in their 30s and 40s. So the targeting of the movie was right, though the execution was completely off the mark.

Sadly one is forced to conclude that this is an experiment gone horribly wrong.