The Stoneman Murders

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 a very thrilling & a compelling movie.Top notch performance from Kay Kay Menon.Such gem are these movies in Indian Cinema but still few know about it.Stoneman murders is based on a true incident that happened in parts of Bombay & then Calcutta.Menon plays the role of a suspended cop who has been given a last chance by his superiors to track down the serial killer who kills his victims by throwing stones.Vikram Gokhale too has given a good performance.Totally thrilling experience & the ending is just so surprising.In short,just too good.Some scenes in the movie are just too good.Specially a scene where Menon has to choose between his moral either to help a dying man or to catch the killer.But i am pretty much sure that this movie will rise in the ranks of many making psychopaths as the new aura of Indian Cinema.

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 goods- Story, cinematography, pace, length, Climax, ending scene, Key Key Menon's performance .

The bads- Songs, Background score, could have been made a bit darker, and Arbaz khan and Menon's wife's perfomance (unbearably bad) .

. I had read somewhere about the stoneman Killings, and came to know about this movie today in 2021. I loved the way the writers created a fiction from a real story. They could have removed the songs, chose some better actors and made the movie a bit more dark.. Then I would have gave it 9 star...

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.