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Manorama Six Feet Under
Reviewer's Summary - Nice Thriller
Language: Hindi
Year: September 21, 2007
Actors: Abhay Deol, Sarika, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Gul Kirat Panag, Raima Sen, Vinay Pathak
Director: Navdeep Singh
Producer: Hiren Gada
Written by: Devika Bhagat, Navdeep Singh
Music: Raiomond Mirza
Wow, at last a Deol who can act.
For over two decades, millions of Bollywood fans have silently suffered - first under the cruel yoke of Sunny Deol and then at the hands of his sadistic younger brother Bobby Deol. As if the Deol brothers' mind-numbing, soul-destroying torture was not bad enough, their half-sister Esha Deol joined the torture squad in 2002 sinking her fangs into the throats of Hindi movie afficionados.
With their pathetic performances in movie after movie, this Deol-troika of Sunny, Bobby and Esha has inflicted more damage on the Indian soul than all of the corrupt politicians in India.
So it was sweet relief to encounter Abhay Deol in Manorama Six Feet Under. Although a cousin of the Deol terror-squad, Abhay Deol is poles apart from his cousins. You see, Abhay Deol can act.
A natural in front of the camera, Abhay has the aplomb of an actor who has been doing movies for decades.
But Manorama Six Feet Under is only Abhay Deol's fifth film. It's safe to say that with so much talent lurking in him, Abhay Deol will have a really hard time making it in Bollywood.
A Bollywood version of that 1974 classic Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, Manorama Six Feet Under is a fine murder tale set in a small town in the arid deserts of Rajasthan.
In Manorama Six Feet Under, Abhay Deol is ably supported by the solid ensemble of Gul Panang, Raima Sen, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Sarika.
While under suspension for taking a bribe, a junior engineer Satyaveer Singh (Abhay Deol) is approached by Manorama (Sarika) who wants him to investigate an affair she suspects her husband and prominent politician P.P.Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) is having.
Manorama explains to Satyaveer that since it is a small town and there are no private detectives around, she wants him to take up the job based on his credentials as the writer of a detective novel called Manorama.
Soon, Satyaveer is viciously attacked on the sand dunes by some goons and Manorama is killed in a road accident.
Despite the warnings of his police inspector brother-in-law Brijmohan (Vinay Pathak) and the constant nagging of his querulous wife Nimmi (Gul Panang), Satyaveer is undeterred and goes about investigating Manorama's death.
But all is not what it seems on the surface in this murder thriller. And the sudden twists and turns in the tale add to the charm of this movie.
The story is compelling and sustains your interest throughout the movie.
Good films are marked by attention to the smallest details. In Manorama Six Feet Under, even the two goons who constantly follow Satyaveer Singh do a fine job, a rarity in Bollywood where the bad guys are often comical in their work.
Manorama Six Feet Under's script is tightly written and rarely flags.
Mercifully, there are none of those weird songs and sudden trips to Switzerland, Brazil or wherever for those Bollywood song-dance nightmares.
Director Navdeep Singh is no Roman Polanski (director of Chinatown) but he surely deserves kudos for bringing Bollywood fans this fine movie.
Manorama Six Feet Under is one Bollywood film you won't want to miss. - Copyright SearchIndia.com.
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