Inspired by a 4-star rating by the Times of India and hoping that the rating will be justified by the quality of the movie I stepped out on a Saturday evening with a few friends to witness the murderous saga unfold in celluloid in front of me.
To begin with I had intentionally kept my expectations from the movie at a minimum because of 2 reasons:
The movie was an adaptation of Ruskin Bond's "Suzanne's 7 husbands" and Indian movies have generally not been great at pulling of a good movie portrayal of a book (except say, 3 idiots)
The promos had suggested very little about whether the movie would be a thriller and on the face of it , the story appeared to be rather predictable
So there I sat eyes, focused on the 70 mm screen that began by showing an outright 'ugly' Priyanka seemingly blowing her brains off . The story unfolded in a slow ,sincere way with the narrator doing a good job of capturing essential moments of grief, anguish, frustration and lust.
Since I was not completely aware of the entire star- cast I was made to keep guessing as to who the next husband is going to be and more interestingly - what the reason of his death would be.
The plot ,beginning on an unclear note, managed to keep the suspense alive as death after death one kept wondering how the next one could be in any way different from the previous one. The truth is all the murders were necessitated reasons so different that you couldn't help but watch in silent appreciation of the brilliant portrayal of the same in the movie. And what's more ,its not that one murder was completely unrelated to the previous one. They never were water tight compartments . Their lay the masterclass of the director. The gradual flow of the story line never gave the audience a sense of discontinuity . The director should also be given credit for the way he crafted the movie by beautifully linking it with real world happenings at different points in the story. Thus a Priyanka's affection for a Muslim husband during the Babri Masjid demolition and India testing nuclear weapons at the same time as a Russian spy entered Priyanka's life promising "Amar Prem" captures amazingly the director's interest in keeping the movie synchronized.
One cannot undermine the centrality of Priyanka in the movie. The movie is singularly about her struggle to find true love and her response to situations when she is cheated.In the same movie, one experiences a myriad of feelings for a women whose make up was rather unbecoming of a former Miss World. She looks dark,unclean, chubby on the face and flabby at the waist.Despite being worshipped as a deity by the ever-so-lustful Anu Kapoor, the 'Madame' did not exactly get the temperature soaring. And the best part is - she didn't have to. This was not a 'Dostana' movie.This was a movie of a girl dismissed by fate to be cheated every time and it is with this understanding should the audience view her work. Her acting was definitely of the highest order and this will undoubtedly go down as amongst her best movies. In one single movie the audience is made to feel sympathy,anger,helplessness,affection,hatred and admiration for the same person for different acts. She rose up to complete each act with amazing poise and dedication.Hats off to her!
Not to mention the star cast. There were at least four national awards winners in Naseeruddin Shah,Konkona Sen,Irfan Khan and Priyanka herself. The movie had the exuberance of youth in Neil and John's performances while having the calmness of experience in ModhuDa's care. Each actor had a distinct role to perform which he did exceedingly well.
What will perhaps make the movie be appreciated even more is its climax. The movie ends on a tentative note with it remaining unclear as to which was the 7th murder (and for Christ's sake it wasn't Jesus Christ). While most viewers were getting up from their seats, the last few unexpected scenes suggested that the last sin could either have been Priyanka herself or her dependable help Usha Uthup who she never intended to kill .The transformation of the sometimes ferociously vengeful women to a nun who surrendered herself to the will of the Almighty would strike a cord with the hardest of hearts. The women never killed 'coz she was maniacal. She did it because she was too unfortunate to be loved and just too rich to be unloved. By surrendering to the will of the Almighty and confessing to one's sins irrespective of whether they were pardonable, Priyanka brings the human touch to her otherwise wronged and ,therefore, brutal self.
Yes, the movie had its short comings. It was dull and boring at times with conversations sometimes moving at snail's pace. The songs except for ''Daaaarling" weren't great and 'Oh mama' was a disgrace to say the least.The darkness in the movie may not have gone down well with a lot of looking-for-fun audience and the depiction of violent sex may have been overdone.But one has to understand the deeper connotation of every scene as to why they were made the way they were. To me it is more a question of perception . That an attempt was made by an Indian film-maker to make a movie that is so rich in meaning may not have gone down too well with the otherwise "west is best" Indian audience who may lap up a slow movie like 'Prestige' with much appreciation but would crticize an almost heroic attempt like this one. So what of the movie was an adaptation of an English novel?The writer is Ruskin Bond - a person as Indian as any of us.
To the larger debate as to whether Bollywood has come off age? Well that's a tough one. A string of movies out of the tried and tested formulae has surely given Bollywood a shot in the arm but we still remain a country where lover's would end up giving a damn about people that care about them in favour of their "First Crush" (Think Band Baaj Baraat!).
All in all- well done Vijay Bharadwaj
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