My Wife's Murder

The sad subject of this offering is a film engineer, a henpecked father of two whose paranoid shrew of a wife accuses him unremittingly of sleeping with his younger, attractive assistant. There is absolutely nothing going on between the two, but after pushing him too far, he strikes her, she falls back, hits her head, and we have one dead wife bleeding on the carpet.

What he should do now, but of course doesn't, is summon the emergency services; he might even talk his way out of it, but he decides to dispose of the body, incredibly ineptly for a man who should know better. Having no option but to report her missing, he does so, and her body turns up quickly. At this point the detective on the case should have turned up at his home with a warrant, and that would have been the end of it, but perhaps they do things differently in India. At any rate, the assistant is drawn unwittingly into the plot, then wittingly covers for him. Obviously this can have only one outcome, and it is not a good one, rather amusing though is the way English creeps into the dialogue in many places. Okay, it is the lingua franca of the Universe, but it may be that fifty years from now every living language contains a smattering of it, those that don't already. There is also a cameo breakfast scene in which the detective, taking an ear-bashing from his own nagging wife, realises what has probably happened and is obviously thinking there but for the grace...

Well....I know it's based on a real incident.... but still I would like to say that right from the beginning till the end I keeps your mind fully occupied and no where makes you feel "It's so unrealistic". In fact the attitude of Anil Kapoor's wife too has been portrayed in a very realistic way which leaves a deep impact on your mind. I have seen minor version of such wives who do not trust there husband or people who have negative attitude for everything and are very fussy.

Though the movie made me a little tensed I liked the concept of the movie as a whole. But, a little more comedy would have been appreciable.

The movie has a lot to learn from each of the characters, specially the impact of communication on husband-wife relationship.

My Wife's Murder is an extremely well made film. Directed by newcomer Jijy Philip (one of RGV's assistant), the film delves into the psyche of a murderer who kills his wife accidentally.

The story revolves around Ravi Patwardhan (Anil Kapoor) who is a middle class film editor. He has a wife Sheela (Suchitra Krishnamurthy) and two kids. He spends most of his time working away in his studio with his assistant, Reena (Nandana Sen). However, the reality of his home is way different than it seems. His wife is a nag who is constantly bickering and suspecting her husband of having an affair with his assistant. One day, the spat turns ugly and Ravi loses his cool, pushing Sheela which results in her hitting her head on a wooden carving of the bed and dying instantly. Faced with an unapologetic situation, Ravi is hesitant about calling the cops as he fears he might get arrested. And this will ruin his children's lives. Eventually, he decides to play hide-and-seek with the law until the inevitable occurs.

MWM is not a thrill-frill murder mystery. It' s a simply plain psychological film about a man who is unlucky on all fronts: be it personal or professional. The success of Philip as a director lies in the fact that how he managed to keep us glued to our seats despite a simple storytelling. He takes us into the mind of the troubled man and makes us feel his tensions, anxiety, excitement and helplessness. Under RGV'S tutelage, Philip has learned the ropes of direction pretty quickly and in most of the sequences you can catch glimpses of his mentor.

The film has a dark look and it really helps build the tension and suspense. The background score is also apt for the setting. Cinematography by P.S. Vinod is first-rate.

MWM totally belongs to Anil Kapoor. He sinks his teeth into the role of Ravi Patwardhan really well and delivers a fine performance. He is one of the underrated actors in Bollywood. MWM really helped him tap his potential as an actor to the fullest.

Boman Irani is another actor who deserves an equal amount of applause. He is likable as the cop hot on trail of Anil's character in the film. He is made to act more with his facial expression than mouthing dialogues and he does it pretty well.

Nandana Sen is passable as Reena. She gets more scope towards the second half though and she does it well.

Suchitra Krishnamurthy, despite a 15 minute role, ends up giving an award worthy performance. Her role as the nagging wife stays with you even after you walked out of the theater.

On the whole, MWM makes for an interesting watch. Go for it!

The movie was ok sort of. No suspense- little thrills- made up circumstances . Background music was very very bad- too much ,too loud and never matched with the scene, poor work. I literally got headache with too loud background muaic .

Anil kapoor as always was good. I sometimes wondered can wife of some person be so. ........ Felt pity for hero. I thing the girls boyfriend was practical but just not to show our hero in bad light ,he,the boyfriend , was shown villanous.

Length of movie was just perfect else it could have looked stretched.

Overall an ok one time watch- i just watched it for Anil Kapoor.

What worked: The movie is successful in regards to its tone and the flow of the movie. Despite the ups and downs in the narrative, the climate remains intact and engaging which makes it an interesting watch. The biggest strength of the movie has to be its simplicity as a result the story remained within the reach of an audience but also giving us option of interpretation. Overall, it's a fine watch

What did not work: The movie could have been much better had the writers took care of attendance to details. Also, the movie gets entangled and loses the tone in the final part of the movie making it a melodramatic average watch Final verdict: recommended for its tone