7 Khoon Maaf (2011)
7/10
A Stellar Presentation
17 June 2011
Saat Khoon Maaf-A Movie Review

She laughs, a certain laugh; too unique, too perfect; and thus commences a spiral staircase of Vishal Bharadwaj, Saat Khoon Maaf.

The movie literally is a spiral staircase with every turn swift and predictable but Bharadwaj keeps on getting better and better and…

Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes is a desperate love-seeker, wanting a perfect husband to complete herself but is challenged with a string of monstrosities in the form of her grooms. She swings and twirls in desperation and contempt trying to figure out her estranged marital life and fighting her womanhood. She reasons and applies and ultimately is left with no other option but murder.

Welcome to Saat Khoon Maaf were passions becomes dark, humor becomes gruesome and characters explode on faces with such sincerity that reality and cinematic experience combine at a beautiful delta.

Vishal Bharadwaj in his wholesome elegance displays a poetic saga on screen. Everything couples and takes form of a vintage painting painted in deep hues on a burnt canvas.

It is the manner if not the matter which truly becomes the heart and soul of this rustic and dark comic thriller.

First things first; Vishal Bharadwaj has raised his bar tremendously by displaying his sense and sensibility with style and charisma in encapsulating a next to impossible tale on screen. The screenplay by him and Mathew Robbins (can be read on the new edition of the book titled Saat Khoon Maaf) is so tough to put on. The director brings a tragic grandeur to the film with mere class and grace.

The film is largely driven by the exhilarating Priyanka Chopra in what can be categorized as her best act ever. She is stoic, erotic, poised, perplexed, subtle and of course venomous and yet gullible. She roars in the distraught and sorrowful character of Susanna. The husbands are nicely picked with Anu Kapoor (Inspector Keematlal) shining out of the motley lot.

The cinematographer creates scenes with such intense tension, especially the close-up shots of the characters. He creates a masterpiece much to the likes of Stanley Kubrick (the disgust and horror of A Clockwork Orange). Every scene, every still is picture perfect.

The minute and intricate detailing of the film is mind-boggling. The sets, the chapels, the bungalow, the minuteness is tremendous.

What lightens up the film is the careful lightning used with such consciousness with most of the scenes automatically becoming dark and adding to the atmosphere. One of the most tremendous scene of the movie is when the Russian husband is being warned of all the misadventures of his wife and she starts dancing around him. The scene enriches the viewer.

Another factor is the music. It soothes and at the same time corrupts the movie with an indulging marvel. Vishal Bharadwaj composes both dark and definitive pieces, extensively fulfilling the demand of the horror genre.

Summarizing, the movie is a stellar presentation of an out of the world experience which readily accounts of the masterpieces which can be woven on screen.
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