Desi Unfaithful?. Review on Murder

Boy do I feel vintage writing here again. So to everyone I know, here's a big woop woop - what's up homies?!

Well to start with let me say this will be the very first time I am doing a Bollywood review. In that light, please excuse my ignorance should it appear blatantly obvious that I'm no Bollywood dilettante like most of you in here. But this movie provoked enough interest for me to want to write about it.

Murder or Sex?

I'd say one of the first things that intrigued me about this movie was why it was called ''Murder''. Especially when most of it had to do with manic obsession and loads and loads of lust. I would hardly have envisioned a movie with the name ''Murder'' to contain such graphically sexual depictions with the blood and gore coming in at a fairly distant second. Sex has steadily inched its way into the Bollywood mainstream so it does not surprise me to see very little left to the imagination in the bedroom. Not to mention the story itself departs from the standard format of treading eggshells on sexual overtones while maintaining a family friendly facade. Difficult as it might be for the average desi moviegoer to digest such generous oodles of sex, I believe this movie has made a bold statement about the direction that the Hindi movie mainstream may be heading towards.

Story

I'm going to keep this section relatively short as I am sure the bulk of you has already seen this or read other reviews on this topic. Shot in beautiful Bangkok, a lot of the movie makes for some tourist eye candy. But to cut to the chase, Simran is a trendy chick who's in trouble. A sardar cop (nice to see our boys making it big even in Thailand) has her in custody and is interrogating her about a cold blooded murder she allegedly commited. And then the flashback begins as Simran recounts the events leading her to this room.

Our protagonist is a trendy housewife who moves to Bangkok with her husband and kid. All's well until she realizes her man's totally oblivious of her existence. One day while Simran's caught in the rain while going to pick her kid up from school, a familiar face from the past pops up. It's an ex boyfriend - a very jealous one at that. The dude takes her home, gets her changed, ogles at her while she's in the shower and reminisces on the good old days when they were together. Little steamy there but as you will soon see it is but a prelude to what is about to follow.

Mr ex boyfriend becomes compulsive stalker calling Simran at work, at home and just about anywhere wanting to meet her. The attention starved woman (hardly believable) finally succumbs to the tempation and they arrange clandestine encounters, which at first start off innocently enough but quickly lead to more intimate sessions.

At one point you do begin to wonder how this movie made it to mainstream cinema! In the meanwhile the neglectful husband realizes that his wife is constantly making excuses to go out..hires a private investigator who dutifully captures the evidence on celluloid. Then comes the crunch - wife finds out that she's been caught red handed and storms over to ex bf's lair where she finds that ex bf's cheating on her! Woohoo. Talk about crap hitting the fan. She loses it and what happens thereafter is a blur. At the end ex bf is laying on the ground face down, drenched in blood and the distraught woman is slowly coming to the realization that she might have killed the bloke.

Then we fast forward to the present where suddenly the story adopts a different dimension where the husband claims to have committed the murder and comes up with a story of his own. Well Sardarji isnt convinced and wants to get to the bottom of this. In the meanwhile to make matters more convoluted than they already are, mr ex bf shows up alive and tries to kill Simran but is intercepted by husband who in turn is intercepted by supercop Sardar who provides a fitting finish to the craziness.

Comments

First off may I rave enough abt Mallika Sherawat's looks. That girl can sizzle the best of us a notch! Having said that though, I'd have to also give her the credit due for this movie. Thankfully we're not talking about a glamor doll. There was a fair amount of emoting (rage, guilt, lust) which I'd say she did with aplomb. Granted though that this was by no means a textbook ''gallivant-around-the-woods'' kind of movie.

There is a degree of exaggeration that I would say was necessary though personally I'd have toned down some of the rage on the part of Sunny.. he just seemed out of wack from the get go - to think that Simran would consider his company after he beat up a guy who so much as touched her does seem a little disturbing to me.

The Sardar cop was comical. I thought his role as a law enforcement officer was more a filler than anything else. The happy ending kind of disappointed me - I thought Mahesh Bhatt would do something more powerful with the ending given the strong theme - the climax watered down to a palatable reunion of the estranged couple - how stereotypical.

Conclusion

This movie can at best be described as a desi flavor of the Richard Gere-Diane Lane movie ''Unfaithful''. As the story rolls along, you will see what would amount to straight rip offs from the English version. However the desi perspective to the story coupled with some extremely steamy bedroom action make this movie a good way to start of your weekend as you sip your cold one.