Review: '7 Khoon Maaf' is wicked, trippy and fun

Film: 7 Khoon Maaf (A)
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
Cast: Priyanka Chopra and her seven husbands
Rating: ****

‘I, Susanna Anna Marie Johaness...’ Susanna reads out her wedding vows for the fifth time. The words come out with practised ease, and end with the ominous ‘... till death do us part.’

That’s the bit Susanna takes a little too seriously. The only way to part from her husbands — each with a fatal flaw — is death, and she isn’t the one set to die. So she kills them instead.

“There were two ways to get to school,” explains Ghalib (Harish Khanna, fantastic), her loyal butler and accomplice in the murders. “The one she usually travelled by had a mad dog blocking the way. Instead of taking the other path, Susanna shot the dog one day.”

Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf — based on a Ruskin Bond short story — is unlike anything you have ever seen in Indian cinema before. Bhardwaj shows what we aren’t used to watching.

The characters are more wicked than usual, the atmosphere is sinister, and the plot, unimaginable — a woman marrying seven men can raise quite a few conventional eyebrows; that she kills them is almost unthinkable.

Priyanka Chopra takes on a character that most of her contemporaries would shy away from and enacts it in a way that only she possibly can. For a woman with as many shades as Susanna, Chopra gets a crack at a role of a lifetime. And Bhardwaj ensures she sparkles like never before.

She’s no psychopath though, Susanna. Not unless you believe so. To many, she may seem a woman wronged — a vengeful tigress wanting to get back at the wrongs meted out to her by each spouse.

To a few others, she might come across as a vigilante like Dexter Morgan — a popular American television character which is a serial killer preying on those who do wrong.

You may think what you want, but don’t expect any major surprises. 7 Khoon Maaf, unfortunately or otherwise, follows a story pattern that remains more or less simple and the linear plot leaves no scope for any major twists and turns.

You know, for example, the fate of each husband even as you are introduced to him, but you are more interested in knowing what could be wrong with the man or how he will meet his end.

The first shauhar — the chauvinist army man — played by Neil Nitin Mukesh is not very different from other characters you may have seen in Hindi cinema before.

Bhardwaj, intentionally maybe, starts 7 Khoon Maaf up with the story of the unidimensional husband before moving on to the more interesting ones.

Like the junkie rock star portrayed by John Abraham, whom you haven’t seen in such a role till now, or the charming Roos in love with Bollywood (Dyachenko) or the exploitative investigating officer (Annu Kapoor), or the opportunist medic (Naseeruddin Shah).

Then there is the silent lover, portrayed by the young Vivaan Shah, whom Susanna never marries but is the only one she truly gives her heart to. Naseer’s younger son gets the unlikeliest of launches in a role that is next only to Chopra’s, and he performs it with alarming dexterity.

My favourite, though, is the gentle poet who turns violent in bed. Irrfan Khan, rightly, gets to play the most complex of the husbands — and Wasiullah Khan’s scenes with Susanna have a more lasting impact than the others.

Making a film with numerous chapters is often tricky. Will one be more interesting than the other? Will the sum be more satisfying than the many parts? Will they all be strung together in a screenplay that keeps you hooked without letting monotony set in?

Bhardwaj takes on the arduous task of making a film with — let’s face it — restricted appeal and comes out triumphant like only he can. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, as even in the ‘experimental’ space, 7 Khoon Maaf gives you a taste of something that your palate is just not used to.

But it’s the panache with which he executes the madness that is 7 Khoon Maaf — with invaluable contributions from the director of photography, sound designers and an eclectic bunch of actors — that leaves you impressed.

For a filmmaker who has long established his hold over the craft, 7 Khoon Maaf is the only way forward — it pushes the envelope and takes you on a cinematic journey you may not experience in a Hindi film for a long time to come. Only if you have the stomach for the trippy ride that is 7 Khoon Maaf.