7 Khoon Maaf, the much awaited movie by Vishal Bhardwaj, has some good moments. It is a photogenic movie, shot beautifully. The first two husbands are dealt with in detail and show so much promise that it hurts when the movie just falters later, despite the good direction, and fails to seize your attention.
The fault lies, it tears me apart to say so, with the story. The story is by Ruskin Bond, you see, who is my favorite. Priyanka does the femme fatale bits so well, but does not measure up when the story gets darker and she gets older. Vishal tries to introduce a 'psychological thriller' touch to it in later parts, while Ruskin Bond had kept the story light in the novella, and added a supernatural touch in the original story. Vishal also introduced a spiritual touch to the movie with Priyanka getting ordained in the end and confessing to her sins. I wish the culmination of each story had a sort of a crescendo.
I loved the early Priyanka, the young girl who is able to charm men into her net. I loved Usha Uthup, what a debut. Was that Nitin Ganatra as her butler? He was great, I loved him in Bride and Prejudice as the dorky suitor of Lalita Bakshi. Neil Nitin Mukesh was fabulous as Maj Rodrigues, Susannah's first. As actors, the husbands were good. I loved John's get up as the Rockstar, with his punky wig and KILT. Haha.
The movie stopped short of brilliance, which I expected out of the Bond-Bhardwaj combo.
