Year : 2011
Runtime : 148 Min.
Genre : Drama, Black Comedy
Director : Vishal Bhardwaj
Movie Stars : Priyanka Chopra, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah
Vivaan Shah, Usha Uthup
Country: India
Language : Hindi, English
Loved Priyanka in this movie! I definitely prefer her as the strong spirited female and heart broken woman in
Kaminey (2009) instead of the fashion doll in
Dostanna (2008) This new theme of independent women remarrying is something not in seen in Indian cinemas. It makes me wonder how the Indian audiences responded to it. I just so happened to love it. The film is a bit lengthy and drags on in areas, but if you watched Bollywood films before this is not something new to you. One of my favorite aspects of the film is the fact that Susanna is always changing and becoming someone new, whether its from proper English wife- Rocker groupie- Faithful Muslim- Russian Anna- graying older women- wife of Jesus. A major goof up of the film is the dates do not match. Hell, maybe its just my counting and POV but things just do not look right. Near the very end Arun finds a photograph label with the year 1949. Susanna looks to be about 7 years old. Now, if she was seven in the 50s she would have had to be about 20 in the 70s when she married her first husband when Arjun looked about ten to thirteen- maybe. If that is true than he would have to be over 40 in present day (judging by his wife's phone and laptop it is present day). Arun does not appear a day over 30.
Wiki: 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.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.
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| Now you know there are too many patterns... WTF |
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.
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| Oh my dear John what have you done to your hair? |
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| Blondie? Why is John wearing a skirt or a Scottish kilt? |
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.
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| Trying something new I see... |
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.
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| Such beautiful faces... |
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 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.
Rating: 4/5
