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...

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!

When Anil Kapoor will look down on his Bollywood's career lane, this work will remind him of the actor he always had in him.

This is one of those rare movies from Bollywood that remained completely honest to the genre. So different that if this was dubbed in English many including me would have considered it to be a Hollywood venture without having a moment of doubt, because you wouldn't find anything in it that is typical trademark of Bollywood like unnecessary inclusion of dance numbers, songs, desperate attempt to switch between genre to serve a good for nothing masala (spicy) stuff, and most importantly the running time.

Although every cast member gave their best not to forget Boman Irani who was slowly making his mark in the Indian film industry (now a well established brand), it was Anil Kapoor all the way who made this work so mesmerizing.

The title itself proves that it is not a typical bollywood movie. It comes from the factory of Ram gopal varma, for whom thinking unusually is usual. Even though the story-line is simple, the screenplay keeps the audience glued to their seats. The movie doesn't have even a single boring moment. Almost every frame is relevant to the story( though Boman Irani's personal life is shown, which may seem irrelevant, it IS relevant ).

The characters are well etched, especially those of Anil kapoor, Suchitra, Nandana sen and Boman Irani. The story is very realistic but for the climax, where it slightly deviates to the typical bollywood cliché.

Overall, the movie is really good. But it may not be a hit in the suburban and rural areas because of the inherent morbidity in the movie.

After the first few reels, one feels that full blown movie was an overkill for the plot and perhaps telly was best suited. Mid-way you feel that its not even suited for small-screen. As you reach to the end of it, you feel that it was unwise to have attempted it. After a point, not only it starts to drag but also gets silly. And the lame ending sinks the movie further deep.

Anil Kapoor delivers a noteworthy performance. Perhaps one of the first times I have seen a resilient character who uses more of body language to communicate.

Suchitra Krishnamurthy leaves an impression as a nagging wife. Pity she gets bumped by the time you settle in with the popcorn's.

Nandana Sen is a perfect cast for the role. Sadly its the writing of the character which doesn't fit very well.

Rajesh Tandon does a good job for the character he is given.

Boman Irani gets to play an interesting character. Sadly he is not the brightest crayon to solve the mystery (and as rightly pointed by his wife in the movie, gets job promotions for other reasons).

Its only the performance of the actors which saves the movie. There is no doubt that technically the movie is top-notch, especially coming from RGVs Factory its kinda expected. Pity if content would have given at least half of the attention, it would have a different story altogether.

Its not yet aired on small screen yet, and no rocket science to guess why!