Movie Review: 7 KHOON MAAF (2011)

Vishal Bhardwaj is an awesome director. He’s done, what I would say are some of the best films to come out of the Indian Film Industry ever. MAQBOOL, OMKARA and more recently KAMINEY, were all awesome works of art. His most recent movie comes in the form of an exhibition of Priyanka Chopra’s talents in the form of 7 KHOON MAAF (SEVEN MURDERS FORGIVEN).

Rating: 3 Out Of 5 Stars

The story itself is paced slow, as a biographical fictional movie usually is. However, it’s just interesting and kind of cool to see Susanna’s motivations beyond her actions. Some parts are just very strange to watch though. However there are some pretty awesome performances in this movie from some pretty unexpected sources. John Abraham as a rocker addicted to drugs is great and probably one of Abraham’s best performances. Neil Nitin Mukesh is amazingly evil as Susanna’s first husband, that sets off the whole thing with his asshole-ey ways. Irfan Khan gives us a totally difference side to him in a very shockingly explicit way. The breakout performance has gotta be the kid from whose perspective the entire story is told, as well as the narrator, Vivaan Shah.

This kid is very good as he evolves his character from a young boy into a fully mature grown man by the end of the film. Initially I though the character was portrayed by different actors, but later realized it was the same actor. That’s how good this kid was. I look forward to seeing more from him.

Over all 7 KHOON MAAF is a very weird and creepy film that’s slow and takes its time to grow on you. I wouldn’t say it’s up to par with Vishal Bhardwaj’s other films, however I think that has to do more with the content matter of the book it was based on than the movie itself. It’s not for everyone, however was executed well with some great performances. 7 KHOON MAAF was essentially showcasing all the range of Priyanka Chopra as an actress as the entire movie is focused on her character and her ability to change through the times and her circumstances. The ending of 7 KHOON MAAF was very symbolic, however disappointing it was to the overall nature of the film.

All in all, it was a good attempt at something different, but I wasn’t that impressed with it, barring some specific performances.

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