| 7 Khoon Maaf | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Produced by | Ronnie Screwvala Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Screenplay by | Matthew Robbins Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Based on | Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond |
| Narrated by | Vivaan Shah |
| Starring | Priyanka Chopra Neil Nitin Mukesh John Abraham Irrfan Khan Aleksandr Dyachenko Annu Kapoor Naseeruddin Shah Vivaan Shah Usha Uthup |
| Music by | Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Cinematography | Ranjan Palit |
| Editing by | A. Sreekar Prasad |
| Distributed by | UTV Spotboy VB Pictures Pvt. Ltd. |
| Release date(s) | February 18, 2011 |
| Running time | 148 minutes[1] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | 22 crore (US$4.18 million)[2] |
7 Khoon Maaf (also known as Saat Khoon Maaf), (Hindi: ७ खून माफ़ या सात खून माफ़, Urdu: سات خون معاف, English: Seven Murders Forgiven) is a 2011 Hindi black comedy drama thriller film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, starring Priyanka Chopra in the lead role. The film, based on Ruskin Bond's short story, Susanna's Seven Husbands,[3] features seven male leads with Naseeruddin Shah who plays the oldest husband, Neil Nitin Mukesh as the youngest husband, as well as John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Annu Kapoor and Russian actor Aleksandr Dyachenko. The seventh husband is a mystery that the viewer will find at the end of the film.[4] Priyanka Chopra plays a femme fatale in the film, who goes on to kill all her husbands.[5] 7 Khoon Maaf was first scheduled for release on 21 January 2011,[6] but was later postponed to 18 February 2011. The film had its premiere at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.[7]
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The film tells the story of a beautiful Anglo-Indian woman Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra) who goes on to kill all her husbands.[8] Susanna tries to find love but six of her seven husbands have a fatal flaw so she kills them. These killings and her yearning for love is explained by the fact that she had lost her mother at very young age. The story is narrated by a young forensic doctor Arun (Vivaan Shah) to his wife (Konkona Sen Sharma). Arun has observed Susanna since his childhood and has nurtured a secret crush on her. The boy owes his whole life to Susanna as she funded his education and made him what he is today. He starts off by declaring to his wife that Susanna has committed suicide leaving him a note congratulating him for his marriage. The doctor is now in charge of confirming whether the body found is Susanna's. Unable to overcome the grief of her death he lets out his feelings to his wife who listens to him patiently.
Susanna's first husband Edwin Rodriques (Neil Nitin Mukesh), an Army Major, whose fatal flaw is that he is overbearing, jealous and possessive. He is crippled and unable to digest the fact that a beautiful woman such as Susanna would actually be faithful to him and would be able to love him. There comes a point when he even starts to doubt his ability to father a child and takes out his anger on his wife. Though she bears the mental torture he subjects her to day after day, she could not forgive him for blinding her faithful, mute horse keeper (Shashi Malviya) in a whip fight. He is disposed of during a panther hunting trip with the help of her faithful maid (Usha Uthup), her butler (Harish Khanna) and the mute horse keeper. Susanna's second husband, Jamshed Singh Rathod (John Abraham), who rechristens himself as Jimmy Stetson after their marriage, is a singer whose flaw is pride. The marriage starts off well but Jimmy starts gaining success and misusing his new found fame. He starts stealing songs and spending time with other women and becomes dependent on drugs. Susanna wants to be lucky in love the second time and tries her best to get him out of his addiction but in vain as he gets hooked on his addiction again secretly. At last she gives up on him and disposes of him through a Heroin overdose. The police find foot prints near his body which indicate that someone with six toes has committed the murder.
Susanna's third husband Wasiullah Khan (a.k.a Musafir) (Irrfan Khan) is a soft and thoughtful poet by day, a sado-masochist by night. Susanna tries to cover the bruises he gives at night with make-up. Her faithful servants cannot bear to see her depressed and beaten up and advises her to get rid of him which she eventually agrees to. He is buried in a snowy grave in Kashmir. Her fourth husband, Nicolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko) is a Russian Spy leading a double life. When Susanna finds out that he has another wife who has borne him kids, her anger knows no bounds. He meets his end courtesy Susanna's pet snakes. Susanna transits into partial madness and no longer needs to ponder before disposing of anyone she disapproves. Her fifth husband Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor) is a police inspector, who has shielded his 'Madame' from prosecution in two murders and lures her into marriage. With a voracious appetite for sex, his need for Viagra proves to be his undoing as one fateful night, she makes him overdose on his Viagra by mixing it in his drink.
Dr. Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Naseeruddin Shah) a Bengali doctor saves her from a suicidal act she had due to loneliness and guilt after hearing of Arun's marriage and puts her on a mushroom only diet. While she does not wish to marry he convinces her into marriage saying that she will be the sole inheritor of his property. He tries to kill Susanna a few years after their marriage in order to inherit her money as he is actually bankrupt. He tries to poison her with mushroom soup, however the butler(Harish Khanna) drinks it by accident and dies instead. In a state of shock, she shoots Modhuda during a session of Russian roulette.
The same night, Susanna lights her house on fire in an attempt to kill herself. Seeing the house on fire, her faithful maid with six toes comes to rescue her instead dies in the flame. In the forensic lab Arun finds out that the body is not Susanna's, yet he declares her dead in his reports. He goes in search of Susanna and finds her where she tells him she finally is getting married the next day to someone who accepts her, knowing all of her sins. Finally in spirituality, She imagines her seventh husband to be Jesus one who is full of love, and already 'dead' as she becomes a nun at the end. Susanna finally found the love she kept seeking all through her life and this person who is her ultimate real eternal husband, God who would never hurt her. Arun and his wife go back home, after he tells her that Susanna is dead forever.
During production, the film underwent two name changes. Initially, the project was titled Seven which was then replaced by Ek Bataa Saat and finally 7 Khoon Maaf. Mohanlal was initially approached by Vishal Bhardwaj for the role of Inspector Keemat Lal, but the southern superstar backed out from the film for unspecified reasons.[10] Then he was at last moment replaced by Annu Kapoor.[11]
In this film, Priyanka Chopra's character ages from 20-65[12] and will be seen going through seven marriages at different stages of her life, for which prosthetics had been used. For that, director Vishal Bhardwaj hired Hollywood special make-up effects artist, Todd Tucker who was a part of the make-up effects team of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), to create those seven different looks for Priyanka Chopra's character in the film.[13] The most challenging one out of those was that of the 65-year-old woman,[14] for which the make-up team has used Priyanka's grandmother’s photo to try to make her look as close to her as possible.[15] During the process, Priyanka did not eat or drink anything for hours for the shoots that involved prosthetics.[16] Vishal also wanted Priyanka to put on 5 Kilograms to fit the bill of the character.[17]
Filming began on March 24, 2010[18] at the Shalimar Bagh in Srinagar,[19] before moving on to Delhi,[20] followed by a 2 month schedule in Coorg[21][22] and some portions were also shot in Mysore,[23] Pondicherry,[24] Mumbai[25] and Moscow.
The film was screened at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival as part of its world premiere in the Panorama section of the festival.[26] At the Friedrichstadt Palace, a Berlin theatre, some 2,500 people watched the screening on the last night of the festival, and later gave the director and the nine-member cast and crew a standing ovation as they came on the stage at the end of its screening.[27]
7 Khoon Maaf received generally positive remarks. Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave the film four stars out of five describing the film as "serious, sensitive and stirring" and "a whole new cinematic experience."[28] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film three stars saying that "7 Khoon Maaf is a dark film that has its share of positives and negatives. However, the film will meet with diverse reactions - some will fancy it, while some will abhor it. The film will appeal more to the critics/columnists and the festival circuit."[29] Swati Bhattacharyya of Dainik Bhaskar rated the film 4/5.[30] Aniruddha Guha of the Daily News and Analysis gave the film a review of 4/5 calling it a "bloody good film."[31] The Indo-Asian News Service described the film as a "winner" by Vishal Bhardwaj and gave it a rating of 4/5.[32] Zee News rated the film as "dark, engaging and unapologetic" and also gave it 4/5.[33] Notable film critic Subhash K. Jha rated the film 4/5 and said "Chalk up an absolute winner for the Vishal Bhardwaj-Priyanka Chopra team. They make a coherent vision out of an inconceivable marital crises."[34] Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times gave it 3/5 saying "The movie is clearly crafted around strong, effective scenes alone: a lot of it, cleanly cut and clinical, a whole lot immediately compelling."[35] Swati Deogire of The ILIKE Times gave it a 4/5 saying "Resting her body on the thick rope of an old bell tower, Susanna’s blank face tells a story of betrayal."[36]
The film also met with some negative reviews. Rachel Saltz of the New York Times called it, "a meandering black widow tale, (that) has plenty of art, too. But it floats around, ungrounded in anything like emotional reality." [37] The Telegraph's Pratim D. Gupta called 7 Khoon Maaf "adventurous but over-indulgent" and criticised Vishal Bhardwaj "to have traded economy for mainstream acceptance".[38] Film critic Khalid Mohamed gave it 2/5 stars saying "Bharadwaj’s Seven-up-‘n’-down is as weird as an airplane without wings. It just doesn’t take off, as if it was caught in congestion on the tarmac."[39] Anupama Chopra of NDTV Movies gave the movie two and a half stars out of five terming it a "Disappointment" and saying that "the film stumbles and fumbles. The episodic nature of the narrative makes the plot predictable."[40] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the movie a 2/5 saying "I'm going with two out of five for 'Saat Khoon Maaf'." He also said "It tests your patience" and that "Vishal Bhardwaj delivers his oddest film yet, that is also sadly his weakest."[41] Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it 2/5 saying "film that doesn't connect either emotionally or sensually."[42]
At the box office, the film opened to a weak response across India. The business was low at single screens (8% to 10%), but slightly better at multiplexes (15% to 20%).[43] Released with 786 prints, the film collected 13 crore in its opening weekend,[2] and 14.25 crore by the end of its first week.[44] However the film managed to surpass its cost within its first week at the box office, through non-theatrical revenues.[2] After the end of its run, Box Office India sadly declared it as a flop.[45]
The DVD of 7 Khoon Maaf has been released in India by Reliance Big Home Entertainment and by UTV internationally. It has one disc, and no special features.[47]
| 7 Khoon Maaf | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by Vishal Bhardwaj | ||||
| Released | 21 January 2011 (Digital) 24 January 2011 (Physical) |
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| Recorded | 2010–2011 Studio Satya, Mumbai Empire Audio Center Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai Rajiv Menon Studios, Chennai |
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| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 40:30 | |||
| Label | Sony Music | |||
| Producer | Hitesh Sonik, Clinton Cerejo, Simaab Sen | |||
| Vishal Bhardwaj chronology | ||||
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The film's score and songs were composed by Vishal Bhardwaj and the lyrics were penned by Gulzar. The official soundtrack contains seven songs and two reprise versions. The soundtrack was digitally released on Ovi (Nokia) on 21 January 2011. It was physically released on 24 January 2011.[48] The soundtrack received overall positive reviews.[49][50][51][52] The song "Darling" is based on the Russian folk song Kalinka, and has been given credit for it on the album cover.[53] The song "Tere Liye" performed by Suresh Wadkar, was not used in the film.
| Track listing | |||||||||
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| No. | Title | Performer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Daaaaaaaaaaaaarling" | Usha Uthup, Rekha Bhardwaj | 3:27 | ||||||
| 2. | "Bekaraan" | Vishal Bhardwaj | 6:25 | ||||||
| 3. | "O' Mama" | KK, Rap: Clinton Cerejo | 4:53 | ||||||
| 4. | "Awaara" | Master Saleem | 5:31 | ||||||
| 5. | "Tere Liye" | Suresh Wadkar | 5:42 | ||||||
| 6. | "Dil Dil Hai" | Suraj Jagan | 3:06 | ||||||
| 7. | "Yeshu" | Rekha Bhardwaj | 6:26 | ||||||
| 8. | "Doosri Darling" | Usha Uthup, Rekha Bhardwaj, Clinton Cerejo, Francois Castellino | 3:04 | ||||||
| 9. | "O' Mama" (Acoustic) | KK | 1:50 | ||||||
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Total length:
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40:30 | ||||||||
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