7 Khoon Maaf - Movie Review

Hmm... My brother wrote a very good review of this movie in his blog: http://summaryoflifetimes.blogspot.com/2011/02/7-khoon-maaf.html

So I went to watch this one as well. So here's my review (Possible Spoilers alert).

This movie is a supposed to be a dark psychological thriller and it might look like that for most part of the movie. But it is actually a spiritual movie and it always was, once you think about it after watching. It slowly grows on you.

Let me complete some of the technical stuff before I go to the heart of the movie. The movie has tried to create it's dark nature by having dull and dim lights more often than not. Also, the main story starts off as a narrative from a viewpoint of the boy but then they take some licenses to enhance the story by showing soem scenes which the boy could have never known. But when it came to the character of Susanna, we do not know anything more that what the boy knows. There is no room for us to introspect or judge her personally. We see her just as the boy does. That is something the movie maker never lost sight of and can be considered as a good achievement. The performances are good and very restrained. Although, I personally sensed a lot of effort on Priyanka's performance. I mean she is not a natural actor but she is a "made" actor.

Now lets focus on the heart of the movie. Susanna, the protagonist, is looking for her "father". In this case, her "father" happens to be a Jewish carpenter (AKA Jesus). She builds up her anticipation and whenever she meets "Jesus", she is somehow or the other disappointed. She was looking for the ruler of the other world among the others who were of this world. It was just matter of time when her illusions were shattered and she could never take it or let it go. These events form the most part of the movie. But then as it is said by someone, somewhere... Just one act of surrender is enough to wipe out all the past karmas. There is always hope for everyone in this world. It might not always look like that, but there is only one path. It might not be apparent, but Susanna had a lot of love in her and that was the only path for her. Thus, the metaphor of Sufi was portrayed here correctly and we can clearly associate with it. Really, once you completely surrender... what is there to be punished, and hence, a very apt title - 7 Khoon Maaf (7 Murders Forgiven).