Hindi movies have transformed! 7 khoon maaf is the live and ‘screening-in-theatres’ proof of this fact. All salutes to the director Mr.Vishal Bharadwaj for his effort and also for the transparency in admitting that the movie was based on Ruskin Bond’s short story “Susanna’s Seven Husbands”. Cinematography is a major plus in contributing to the “Period-Look”. Tagged as a Dark-Comedy, the movie evokes genuine laughter from the audiences on quite a few occasions.

The plot is very engaging right from the beginning. The story of why and how Sussana (Priyanka Chopra) kills the first 5 of her husbands is narrated by her foster son Arun (Vivaan Shah), who recalls her as “Shahib”, a sign of respect to the land-lord like families in India. The story of Sussana is pretty dark, whose mother dies immediately after giving birth to her and father passes away 20 years later. At the prime of her life, Sussana is left with her Aunt (Usha Uthap), the loyal jockey (who is also deaf and dumb) and finally the butler, all four of them being partners in crime for the first 5 killings.

Without revealing too many details, I decided to tag one-liners for each kill.

The first kill is for revenge and pride. The second kill is Pest control, termite like husband who was eating off valuable antiques. The third kill is a self defense act. The fourth kill is the result of intolerance to Polygamy and a slight sense of patriotism too (anti-spy). The fifth kill is for Privacy intrusion. The Sixth kill is the result of insecurity with destiny making a decision about who has to die. The Seventh kill is a mystery to the audiences but Sussane admits it.

Major Edwin Rodrigues (Neel Nitin Mukesh) is the impotent and jealous husband, excels in his role. He expresses intense emotions with ease. Jimmy (John Abraham) is the husband no.2, who aspires to be a singer falls prey to Drugs. Its a noisy and freaky role, he doesnt make much of an impact. Musafir (Irrfan Khan) a gentle and popular poet plays the boldest role in the movie. He definitely adds depth to the movie. Nic (Aleksandr Dyachenko) is a Russian but he does “Amar Prem” with Sussana. The Hindi speaking Russian makes you laugh hard. The Intelligence Beaurau officer (Annu Kapoor) an ardent admirer helps Sussana get out of the mess due to her Russian husband’s death. He has done a neat job and fits the role. After Irrfan Khan, its Naseeruddin Shah who shines. The thrilling life-n-death game played by Shah and Chopra over a mushroom soup could very well be attributed as the best scene of the year.

Now speaking of the leading lady’s performance, Priyanka carries the burden quite effeciently, but still the spectrum of emotions are not so evident. She’s definitely got a meaty role and has tried hard to make a difference. This could be the best movie in her career.

All the women out there could watch the movie to learn different ways to kill their husband; all the men could watch it so that they are aware of their better-half’s moves and sabotage the same. And they could live happily together!

–Varun.