REVIEW: Saat Khoon Maaf (2)

TILL DEATH DO US PART

There hasn't been such a potentially exciting line-up of characters in recent Hindi cinema as Vishal Bharadwaj's Saat Khoon Maaf. Which is why it's a pity he squandered a great concept with a simplistic screenplay and overwrought direction. Suspense and thrills are about anticipation. In Saat Khoon Maaf (based on a short story by Ruskin Bond, who also makes a brief appearance in the film), everything is laid out too neatly. The trailer informs you that Susanna killed her seven husbands. The films shows you how she did it. And why. But you don't care much either for her or the men who are literally lined-up like Marlowe's parade of the seven deadly sins in Doctor Faustus. 

Nuances lend character to a narrative, and Saat Khoon Maaf is conspicuously lacking in complexity vis-a-vis both characterisation and exposition. Bharadwaj relies more on a dark visual design than actual plot constructs to create an atmosphere of doom. To her credit, Priyanka Chopra plays Susanna as an unapologetic serial killer whose justification for being thus isn't cloaked in psychobabble of the quasi-redeeming sort. But again, her transition from perhaps being forced to end a bad marriage (her trusted valet and one of three partners in crime explains that she always preferred the more difficult route in life and hence divorce isn't an option!), to actually enjoying the idea of killing her spouses as a matter of routine or relish, is never explored.

I thought this would perhaps have happened between husband numbers two and three. But that's pure conjecture.

As narrated by Arun (Vivaan Shah making a very assured debut), Susanna or 'Saheb' as he calls her, is a mysterious woman who, for some reason, has a loyal staff (superbly played by two unknown actors and Usha Uthap in a surprise appearance) ready to help execute her sinister plans without any qualms. Arun loves and worships her for rescuing him from his fate as a stable hand and packing him off to school instead.

We are to believe that Susanna is looking for love and landing the wrong men with alarming regularity. From a possessive and abusive one-legged army major (Neil Nitin Mukesh, impressive) to a drug-addled rock singer (John Abraham in one of his best performances to date), a sadistic romantic poet (Irrfan Khan, lacklustre by his own standards) to a Russian spy (Alesandr Dyachenco), a lecherous cop (Annu Kapoor, in the film's standout act) and a mendacious doctor (Naseeruddin Shah), Susanna's husbands are like a veritable rogues gallery.

Each character is full of possibilities. The only ones that actually make an impression are the major and the cop. The murders are too trite and building up each story from scratch in an almost mechanical, linear fashion stretches the film unnecessarily. The tame device of using real-life events (such as Operation Blue Star, the demolition of the Babri Masjid, all the way to the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai) as markers for plot progression is as unconvincing as it was in Aparna Sen's Iti Mrinalini.  

Which isn't to say that Saat Khoon Maaf is a bad film. It's definitely laudable simply for stretching the boundaries of conventional Hindi film narrative and creating an unusual (though not always interesting) heroine. Hence all the more regrettable that Bharadwaj's imagination fell short of the material at hand.