Sunday, February 20, 2011

Darrrling…7th khoon kaunsa tha?

Yes, before I get into commenting on the movie, I really want to know which was the seventh murder or sin that is referred to in the title - the intermission (after 3 husbands) says “4 more to go” and yet the second half shows only 3 kills! I am not exactly dumb but a little confused here...
At the risk of spoiling the plot a wee bit for those yet to watch the movie – 6 husbands are murdered. The seventh husband is Christ but he is not a victim as such – so not Suzanna’s sin really – Then does she kill herself – is suicide the seventh sin she confesses to? Or is the director just trying to be a smart aleck leaving the audience with a talking point!

Those who have watched the movie, please care to explain and those who haven’t please care to watch and then care to explain :D. Why should I be the only one losing on my Sunday peace?

7 Khoon Maaf is sort of a black comedy that charts the lethal pursuit of love by the main protagonist – Suzanna. While she has the option to step out of the relationship in each of her marriages, she chooses the more macabre way to end her woes – murder of the husbands. Priyanka Chopra is compelling in her portrayal as the psychotic dame with blood on her lips – disillusioned in marriage, hopeful in her cheery optimism, and dexterous in the execution of the murders.

The director has been largely successful in making a film that is shrouded in macabre from the beginning to the end. The excellent camera work is a must-mention!

The dialogues bring out the shades of grey in each character fairly well and in a sense lead you to the fatalistic finality of the dark plot that Ruskin Bond has quite eerily put together. Having said that, the first half remains more engaging and racy than the second.

All the men have done a good job in giving Suzanna the key motives for murder – fine performances.

The background score fits well with the morbid theme providing the audience with that creepy anticipation; and the hugely popular Darrling is so apt and addictive! (I just can’t get over it. YouTube link here)

What of course is lacking in the movie is the fact that it remains hugely unconvincing as far as the story telling goes – the ready availability of accomplices, the all too obvious traps planted – and the whole logic that a single woman would be wedded to the choicest of scoundrels in one lifetime is a little skewed!
Thus, making the movie a could-be-super-engaging blood thriller - but nor does it fall to the depths of an insipid mediocre flick. This one’s quite deftly crafted and though is bone-chilling only in parts, it is watchable.

If this movie is not a crowd puller, blame the orthodox Indian masses. 7 Khoon Maaf does not cater to any of the regular expectations that the audience have from a Bollywood release. It does not try to engage the emotions of the viewers – it leaves you out in the cold – the horror unnerves you but there is no overt attempt at evocation of feelings of empathy or sympathy.
In that sense, there is no realism – there is an emotional disconnect, which lets you watch and appreciate the story at a creative, fictional distance.

(Image source: Google Images)

38 comments:

  1. Okkk let me be honest. Even I do not know the answer. And was googling the answer but only found a question.

    Sharing some ideas, where the truth could be hidden. But if u find the answer, please email me... Cause I drove back from Falls Church to my city (2 hrs) and the whole time I was thinking about it.. Was it Vivaan? usha Utthup? suicide? Jesus? That gentleman in bar? Ghalib? Goonga?

    But here are the three parts where I think something is hidden!


    1 - When Susanna explains Vivaan at a beach... That she is going to kill someone, who is already dead, u cannot save him... I am going to drink his blood...

    2 - When Ghalib explains her characteristics (killing the dog example).

    3 - 3 - The 6 fingers mark and when that old woman dies, how come the reports show that the body matches with Susanna? the answer is somewhere in these three questions!

    Please let me know the answer if u find it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Should have been titled 6 khoon maaf... The idea was right, but 7th murder (mine) did not happen...

    Yes, that is true...

    I was almost killed after watching this movie... I recommended my friends and we all went tgether to watch the movie... They were about to kill me!

    So 7th person is all of u who recommended this movie to ur friends and loved ones!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's a good point!
    The thing is Susanna said in the confession box that she wants to confess 7 sins - 6 murders and 7th what? it has to be a sin she has done. I think largely two possibilities: she commits suicide or is she talking about marrying Jesus who is also a victim in one sense maybe considering she drinks his blood (the wine - a symbol in Christianity)
    The third remote possibility could she murdered her father (but that is like a wide stretch of imagination) - maybe we are reading too much into the symbolism :)

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  4. i also have one point to add..director showed that 7th khoon was of jesus which she didnt obviously killed but then i thought it must have been the lady (usha uthap) who dies because ofher.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anamika... Yes, I thought so... But idea is getting clearer...

    It couldnt be Usha Utthup or her father.

    Cause the first ad says that she has 7 "husbands"... And was nt happy with any of them! And she surely said 7 sins... but the movie is 7 khoon maaf!!! So there are 7 murders!

    So it has t be jesus or somene else she married and they just gave a hint, but did not show it!

    Could be ghalib, goonga or this guy Vivaan..

    By the way, jsut in case if u didnt know already, Vivaan is Naseeruddin Shah's son.

    I had this questions, I never raised it... Did not ask anyone cause I thought I was dumb that I could not see the hidden thing.

    Director said in one interview that many people will not understand what is going on if they do not concentrate.

    So it just cannot be Jesus... there is something hidden!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yuvika is right.. You are the one who asked the question and u only solved it!

    It is Jesus.

    I watched it again (can u believe it?)

    http://sominaltvmovies.blogspot.com/2011/02/7-khoon-maaf-2011-hindi-movie.html

    And confirmed that she said,

    1 - u cannot save him, he is already dead.

    2 - I am gonna drink his blood.

    3 - She married jesus.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am not reading this....... I am coming back after watching the movie!! :D

    BTW if you are a fan of confused plots watch Shutter Island!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sameera go for it and do come back. Yes, I need to watch Shutter Island.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I saw the movie..!

    The 7th Khoon is the Khoon of Suzzana. Her identity basically

    In the end that Sugar says naa.. Suzzana is dead.. she is no more.

    I took that as the clue.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. no no - that death is only a pretense!

      Delete
    2. Well Yuvika, just watched this movie, 7 khoon maaf, and I am persuaded that the seventh sin was not a murder , it was actually incest. She makes it clear towards the end, when she informs "Sugar" that due to him she never felt like having a kid, she considered him her own child and yet she provoked him with sexual intentions in of the scenes.

      Delete
  10. Hey, just came after watching the movie and tat was d only thing tat was playin in my mind - Who was d 7th murder?

    So I tried eliminating d possibilities:

    Jesus: It can't be cause he is already dead. Jesus is d 7th 'husband', in Ruskin Bond's 'Sussana's 7 husbands' but not d 7th murder.

    Usha Uthup: Although she died coz of Sussana but it was clear tat it was an accident n one tat Sussana herself regretted.

    Sussana herself: Dis is d answer coz Sussana became a nun while d whole world believed tat she was dead. So although she was physically alive but she herself had killed herself by allowing everyone to believe tat Usha Uthup's dead body was hers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It has to be Jesus... Cause she said, in that part to Vivaan...

    U cannot save him, he is already dead. And this time, I am gonna drink his blood!!!

    There is a different between suicide and murder... So it cannot be a suicide. Killing urself cannot be framed as murder or khoon in any way!

    Maulik, I watched that movie twice (can u believe that?) just to confirm this!

    As Yuvika said, in christianity, u take bread and wine (Jesus's meat and blood) when the church is over.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nope its not jesus ... she said "7 sins" not "7 murders" at the end ... so its 6 murders and one sin.

      Delete
  12. refer to WIKIPEDIA!!! read the last few lines of the plot...it shud explain the needful..

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ekjately... Read the last paragraph in plot...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Khoon_Maaf

    ReplyDelete
  14. we were right! but the maid has 6 toes, i thought priyanka had 6 toes!

    ReplyDelete
  15. 7th is Sussanna herself as someone pointed out in the comments...

    ReplyDelete
  16. The 7th murder is, IMO, that of Jesus. It is said that all human beings are responsible for his crucifixion and he dies for and because of our sins. Therefore, Susanna wants forgiveness for the murder, as she has realized her sins.

    Here's my review:
    http://morethanfilms.blogspot.com/2011/02/7-thoughts-on-7-khoon-maaf.html

    ReplyDelete
  17. I did not go to see the movie cause i knew i am so dumb i wud not have understood it at all :)

    i was right not to watch it then

    Bikram's

    ReplyDelete
  18. Well Bikram, u r actually a smart person..

    There are some idiots in the world who watched (suffered) the movie twice to find that answer...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Its JESUS cos Jesus died for the world's sins,so in saying everyone killed jesus by their sins

    ReplyDelete
  20. I loved the movie, loved Priyanka's acting and loved the direction..VB is a genius at story telling.. i really feel that some people in India don't have any cinematic sense and cannot digest a story line that is away from the norm, what a pity and yet they find it right to trash a movie and become a self proclaimed critic..

    ReplyDelete
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  22. +1 AB-l-o-g

    Attention he gives to finer details of onscreen characters is impeccable.

    ReplyDelete
  23. It was her unborn child with the major (first husband)

    ReplyDelete
  24. thank you everybody for being a part of this conversation! Jesus it is!

    ReplyDelete
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  26. I kind of feel like the 7th sin/murder was herself. Remember at the beginning of the film she killed herself? Suicide is also seen as a sin to the church so it could technically fall under both murder and sin.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I kind of feel like the 7th sin/murder was herself. Remember at the beginning of the film she killed herself? Suicide is also seen as a sin to the church so it could technically fall under both murder and sin.

    ReplyDelete
  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. I read all the comments along with the synopsis. After almost 3.5 yrs it's still an unsolved mystry :).
    But I think some people here got the right answer.
    It's Sussanna herself.
    Not physically though, but she killed the person inside who was so revengeful that she killed 6 persons just because they couldn't make upto her mark (with love of course) and cruel to her.
    Sussanna finally realised that she(killer her) is as incapable of loving somebody as her 6 husbands, as love goes for forgiveness which she never had. So, she killed that self of her by submitting herself to Jesus. That's why its titled 7 khoon 'maaf', coz all the victims deserve to die and the murders are forgiven.

    Now about the facts,
    1. She had 7th husband as Jesus. That's correct, coz its based on the novel Sussanna's 7 husbands which focused more on '7' husbands and who can be it other than Love Himself.

    2. Usha Uthaap's death is purely
    an accident which Sussanna is also regretful of and can be seen promising herself not to let the sacrifice go in vein.

    3. About Vivaan, as he mentioned that he repaid his debt to Saheeb by identifying her as dead, finally came to her w/o informing his wife as he was trying to stop Saheeb from committing any more crime which earlier he was not capable of. During the credits he can be seen as mourning on the street(while found by Konkana) as he lost his beloved Saheeb(to Jesus) and was concerned whether his wife might have informed the police about Saheeb being alive.

    4. Those dialouges about 'drinking blood' , 'already dead' is just to maintain the suspense and clue to people so that they concentrate more during the climax and pay attention about the 7th murder. Of course also reason for initiation of this thread. :D

    5. About death of Jesus by mankind and because of sins of us, thts a fact. But if that is to be the 7th murder then it could not be forgiven(maaf).

    It's a grt and a much under appreciated muvi.
    I agree this is not everybody's cup of tea, but worth way more than the so called extended commercial shows (released as muviz).

    Recently watched Haider, it's another master piece from VB.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I think the seventh murder or sin was the dog she shoots : P

    ReplyDelete

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