The Stoneman Murders

For me movies are all about art, acting & the quality of story. In earlier times there were plays, adaptions of epics on stage, adaptions of succcessful novels also which were all so artistic to watch live. With time & slowly stage plays giving way to movie halls then multiplexes & now even our drawing rooms. The essence of the stage where acting, art & story are still intact. Everybody be it the rich or poor, young or the old wants to spend time watching something good for his / her time. The very fact somebody wants to spend time & money on something it has to be worthy of the art. This is where Stoneman murders scores high, the movie has all the ingredients of a good urban mystrey thriller, it is not slow paced, it moves quickly & mostly shot in the dark streets of Bombay. The movie really transports you to the 1980s, I was in Bombay at that time so I could really feel the real portrayal of the city. Acting of all actors were good, none outclassing the other. Manish Gupta the director has few good movies to his credit, I watched this & Rahasya in both the movies I could see he has a very good editing ability. In many thrillers I have noticed the editing or story gives way & the movie looks a bit flat on the plot. Some of the things look unrealistic but in this everything looks real. It is time we value actors not stars like in stage shows where people used to value the actors. Stars are celebrities they hardly know how to portray realistically on screen.

Stoneman murders is a must watch movie, hope I find few more thrillers like this to watch on free time.

The Stoneman Murders is a neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Manish Gupta. The film stars Kay Kay Menon, Arbaaz Khan, Late Vikram Gokhale, Rukhsaar Rehman and Virendra Saxena.

Mumbai of 1980s is terrorised by a serial killer who ruthlessly kills pavement dwellers in their sleep. A suspended police officer then decides to step in and conduct an investigation on his own.

When you are directing a murder mystery you should be careful that the viewers shouldn't get any hint to guess the killer and the director successfully achieves in this (although the director gives some very subtle hints about the killer and reason of the murders), the motive of the murder should get cleared only in the end and the director gets success in this also and the murder mystery should make the viewers hooked and the director also gets success in this but some loogical loopholes and some missing dots makes the film little disappointing.

The plot of the film is taken from the murder spree of 1980s in Mumbai (Then Bombay) which was never resolved but in the film the director with the help of cinematic liberty gave the motive behind the murders and also the name of the killer.

The execution of the film is good and most of the time the film will keep you hooked. The acting in the film was good to average with Kay Kay Menon, Vikram Gokhle and Virender Saxena was impressive. Arbaaz Khan was average and Rukhsaar Rehman was disappointing.

Screenplay of the film was gripping and will keep you hooked to know who is the murderer and what is the motive behind the murders. Climax of the film was little disappointing and could've been more crisped.

Overall a good thriller film and should watch once.

The Stoneman Murders is an engaging thriller based on the real-life incident of serial killings by a ruthless killer dubbed as the "Stoneman". It takes place in the city of Mumbai, where serial killings are taking place at a rapid pace. Taking its premise from those incidents and referring to media coverage of the case, writer-director Manish Gupta constructs a screenplay that is derived from hard facts where available, and imagination to fill in the gaps.

"The Stoneman Murders" reveals the horrifying secret, like a proper murder mystery should, right at the end. The narrative is linear and non-fussy, the story-telling direct, peppered with some truly chilling moments. The gathering of forensic evidence, the photographs of the corpses, and the sifting that follows is classic detective territory, and the director does a good job of keeping it simple, but keeping it going. Kay Kay Menon takes the film to the heights with his remarkable performance. Arbaaz Khan is good to watch. Vikram Gokhale and Rukhsar are okay. Rest of the cast is average.

On the whole, ʽThe Stoneman Murdersʼ is the finest thriller churned out on Bollywood scene ever. Itʼs an appealing film to watch.

Excellent Movie. Everybody acted very well in the movie. Songs and BGM in the movie were not so good. The movie was so interesting and thrilling. Not even a single scene was boring. The movie was not so lengthy and lagging which was a main highlight of the movie. There were no unwanted scenes and the movie concentrated more on thrilling and investigating scenes that made the movie more interesting and thrilling. The movie was not boring at all. The lead actors rocked the movie by their performance. One of the best thriller movies. Excellent Movie.

One of the best crime thriller to come outta bollywood. Very atmospheric creepy thriller. Without the star power n without the big budget the movie succeeded in captivating the audiences. Terrific direction by Manish Gupta. Terrific acting by KK Menon n the rest of the cast. Editing by Sanjib Datta is top notch. Srikanth Naroj director of photography did an awesome job with the cinematography. The movie perfectly absorbed the feel of the 80's era, area and the eerie late- night ambiance. The movie succeeded in making the pavements look like black tar unlike the multi- colored jigsaw shaped tiles of today. Details were paid attention to as no modern vehicles were seen on the roads. Despite being a murder mystery, Gupta avoids gore and bloodshed, and makes it visually appealing. There is one amazing erotic scene for front benchers. Awesome ending. Very rare to see this kinda ending in a Bollywood flick. The night scenes were shot very well. It had the atmosphere of chilling dread. Before this flick, ittefaq was my fav Bollywood thriller. Inspite having seen Signpost to murder.

Stoneman is  at its best when it  showcases Gupta's Directorial Skills. He utilizes the night scenes and narrow bylanes wonderfully, crafting shots that are disarmingly beautiful but also serve to establish the chilling emptiness of the area, where screams can travel for miles without being heard.

I saw this movie in theater with my dad when it released. Felt the need to write the review, as just saw a lil bit today on some channel.

Fans of zodiac, memories of murder, bereavement n malevolent shud definitely check this out. Also check The abandoned (2006) directed by Nacho Cerdà. Awesome atmospheric horror film with beautiful n creepy cinematography.