Review of 7 Khoon Maaf
What conclusion does one draw when the director of a movie has the words "Four More to Go" replace the more mundane "Intermission" at the half-way stage of his film? For the movie buff, it reveals the plot that there are three more husbands that the protagonist needs to knock off before the final credits roll.
But, if one pauses to consider director Vishal Bhardwaj's strangely worded interval notice, there is a sense of intellectual arrogance that comes through. It is almost as though he is telling the audience, "I am not done yet. There's a lot more of my movie-making ability that I have to impose on you. You know the story, now watch how I am narrating it and learn your lessons about how films must be made."
Well, that's how the ace director's '7 Khoon Maaf' pitches itself as a collage of brilliant shot compositions, his penchant for the dark and pulsating painfully intact. Based on 'Susanna's Seven Husbands', short-story by Ruskin Bond (who also plays a cameo in the movie), Vishal fleshes out characters that the author had left out in a tale of a woman finding unique ways to kill her seven husbands.