Finally the World Cup is upon us & India has got off to a encouraging start courtesy of a convincing win over the Bangladeshis. As Sehwag has rightly said, this was our revenge for having bundled us out in the first round in the previous World Cup. Incidentally this week, witnessed the release of the eagerly awaited Vishal Bharadwaj's Priyanka Chopra starrer "Saat Khoon Maaf".Coincidentally the basic plot of the movie is how Priyanka extracts revenge on her numerous husbands for various reasons.So will this interesting tale of love & revenge find its feet in this World Cup season??? Hmm..seems like an interesting contest.
The movie begins with Arun (Vivaan Shah) narrating the story of Susanna (Priyanka Chopra) to his wife (Konkana Sen). It turns out that Susanna had committed suicide & it was upon Arun being a forensic surgeon to certify her identity as she was charred beyond recognition. Arun owed his career to Susanna as she had funded for his education & he also harboured a secret crush on her. Pretty soon, we are introduced to the fact that Susanna has been unlucky in love as she ends up marrying seven husbands with each one succumbing to mysterious deaths. Incidentally all her husbands had some serious flaws be it Major Rodrigues (Neil Nitin),an over possessive,jealous husband, Pop Singer Jimmy (John Abraham),a drug addict & noted poet Wasiullah Khan (Irfan Khan), a sado masochist. Husband no.4, Nicolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko) from Russia was a two timer, Inspector Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor), a sex maniac & finally Dr. Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Naseerudheen Shah) who wanted to kill her to pay off his debts. Finally she marries a seventh time to a person who knows all about her past. So who was the seventh husband ??? Did she have a hand in the mysterious deaths of all her husbands??? If yes, how did she pull it off without ever being caught??? All these & more, forms the framework of the movie.
Vishal Bharadwaj is one of the most talented director of the country with his expertise ranging from his primary love,composing to calling the shots. He has a unique style of story telling which has been highlighted is his previous ventures be it "Kaminey","Ishqiya" etc. This time around he has adapted noted writer Ruskin Bond's "Susanne's Seven Husbands" & tackled a pretty unique subject. He has also taken care of the composing part & the Indianised version of Russian song " Kalinka", which begins as "Darling" is already a chart buster. The segment of most of the husbands are engrossing though the one involving Naseerudheen Shah & the Russian could have been tackled much better.Another flaw is the length of the movie, a much crisper version would have imparted a greater effect.
Among the husbands, Annu Kapoor was awesome with Irrfan Khan & Neil Nitin coming up with commendable performances. The other husbands havent done their reputation any harm as they have been apt in their roles. A special word of mention to debutant Vivaan Shah who seems totally at ease facing the camera. But the film undoubtedly belongs to Priyanka Chopra who has imparted a scintillating performance thanks to the meaty role which gave her more than ample scope to showcase her acting prowess.
Verdict: The movie will scorch all the awards but unlikely to set the box office ablaze. It's definitely not going to make revenue out of single screens owing to its offbeat subject & slow tempo. In short, its definitely a decent movie with some great sequences & though it might not be palatable to many, I feel that you guys should give this a try!!!
Regards...Ben
sounds interesting.... looking forward to watching it !! :)
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