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I convinced my friend to watch “Manorama – Six Feet Under” (M-SFU) but not without a warning that it would be different. I even tried explaining what Film-noir mean reading everything about it wikipedia as I do not understand the concept myself too. He in turn convinced his wife to join him. They rush from Thane to join me at the 8:00 PM show in Malad.

They make it 20 minutes into the film.

M-SFU is not a normal bollywood film. With all the reviews in Rediff and PFC, I had a vague idea about how it would go. I was looking forward to it and hoped I enjoy it the same way I enjoyed “Ek Challis ki Last local”

M-SFU starts in a sleepy town in Rajasthan. The dessert, the heat and a writer whose first book is a big failure that he himself does not have a copy of his book. He is suspended from the PWD department. Added to it he has a passionless life with his wife. (that Rhymes)

At that time, the wife of a powerful minister comes to him to keep a watch on her husband. What looks like a normal adultery case turns out to be dangerous when he is almost killed. The woman turns out not the one she claims to be and later dies in a suspicious accident. Instead of just letting the matter die down, the writer tries to find who the woman is. The rest of the story is about how the writer finds the truth and the surprise climax.

The story is different and holds on to the suspense pretty well but then its also true that the movie is slow. Things take place at their own pace and I found myself shifting on the seat which means that the movie is slow. It does manage to keep the attention till the very end but then there is something missing. The movie could have been shorter and the pace a little faster. But still its different and a good movie but its certainly not a classic.

The dialogs are crisp and the actors are good. The camera work is good too, especially Rajasthan. The heat and sand of the state integrates easily with the story.

The direction is good by Navdeep Singh. I like the details in the movie, like photo of Abhay Deol and Gul Panag all over the house. The photos seen but out of focus, the theory of big fish eating smaller fish and fish tank in almost all houses. The way the small town is shot, everything is almost perfect. The attention to details is quite amazing. Then the dialogs of the movie, with the dialect of Rajasthani language adds quite a different flavor.

A mention would be the

The music, I didn’t notice it at all. That is because I was excited about the story that I did not pay attention to the songs at all but the background music suits the eerie plot.

Gul Panag is good as a nagging and sometimes loving wife. She was good in “Dor” and this role is again a non-glamorous one. Raima Sen is ok but nothing exceptional. Sarika as the mysterious woman who dies is there for very short time. She does not have any work except be the trigger for the movie to move forward.

Khulbhushan Kharbanda is the Minister and the villain of the movie. Seen him after a long time and is strictly ok. Also like Sarika he is there for a small part of the movie.

Vinay Pathak is one to watch for. As the brother-in-law of Abhay Deol and as Inspector Brijmohan, he is excellent. His Rajasthani accent and his one-liners just superb. He is the comedy relief for a very heavy story.

Finally Abhay Deol is Satyaveer Singh, the writer. His mustache gave him the maturity look, the kind of a PWD engineer and a frustrated writer. He keeps a serious face throughout the movie and hardly smiles. This is a different from his earlier performances but still a decent performance.

Added to the cast are the small roles performed by unknown actors like the two goons, the neighbor, even the police constables who seem happy because of the double murders in town. Each character well etched.

The story has traces of political conspiracy, murder, revenge and blackmailing and is more realistic. If you are not prepared for such a movie, you will find it shocking like my friend and his wife. My friend thought it was the worst movie and his wife got scared watching the movie. But then again, they want wholesome masala entertainment from any movie. M-SFU would require different understanding from the viewer after all its not a typical bollywood movie.

Some of the scenes are very well shot. Watch out for a cameo from Yana Gupta

As I said, M-SFU is different but not a classic. The fun would be to watch it again and try to understand the clues as the movie progressed. This time I was just trying to get the movie and the plot. M-SFU works to a certain extent but then I wanted it to be an exciting thriller which it wasn’t. Just like the sleepy town, it tend to gets slow but not slow enough to invite boredom. As the tagline says, in a dessert, nothing is what it seems.

All in all, a good movie, a good entertainer and much much better than the huge budget crap I have been seeing since the last few months. Next week Johnny Gaddar is releasing and I am wondering If I should take my friend along. Maybe not!

Rating: 7.5/10