Director:
Vishal Bhardwaj
Producer:
Vishal Bhardwaj, Ronnie Screwvala
Starring:
Priyanka Chopra, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Naseeruddin Shah, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Usha Uthup, Annu Kapoor
The film rests on Susannah's character. And it is to Bhardwaj's credit for creating a character so pure of heart, and yet so wicked. At no point does writer-director Vishal Bhardwaj permit the viewer to blame Susannah (Priyanka Chopra) for any of her crimes; the viewer is to remain consistently sympathetic to her. And the film is so luscious for this reason: the way Bhardwaj makes us root for this semi-villain of a heroine.
It won't be fair to give away much of the story. The film is an adaptation of Ruskin Bond's short story Susannah's Seven Husbands, and has the writer play an interesting cameo.
7 Khoon Maaf is told by a character (Vivaan Shah) who calls Susannah 'Saheb'. He worked in her home as a servant, tortured by his uncle but 'Saheb' made sure he went to school. Since then he developed a fierce loyalty and love for her. He tells us of Shauhar No. 1: a much-respected, handicapped lieutenant (Neil Nitin Mukesh) who "had all the qualities of most Indian husbands - he was boring, possessive and mahaa-shaki."
Then follow other husbands - a sweet choir singer, a charming Russian who woos her with broken Hindi, a doctor and so on. As love disappoints her each time, her husbands die under mysterious circumstances. Just before the interval you have a Quentin Tarantino-style line that says 'Four More to Go'.
As if the story wasn't amusing enough (in a Tales from the Crypt fashion), the dialogue is bursting with wit. Here's a gem, where a character says - 'Jaldi jaldi shaadi karo, aur aaram aaram se pachtao.' The dig on a famous music company is just delicious. The dialogue has a sprinkling of English, and has even the house help use swear words like f***.
The film is shot beautifully and you drown in the visual extravaganza - from the Darrling song to the orchestrated murders. The music (Vishal Bhardwaj, lyrics by Gulzar) is super-fun.
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