Manorama 6 feet under

Aint the title intriguing?

Navdeep Singh has done well by his first movie, which he helped write as well. No spoilers ahead this time, so read on bravely.

The setting of this movie, in a sleepy town in Rajasthan is brilliantly portrayed. The characters are so real and believable - Abhay Deol, Gul Panag, Vinay Pathak - neat performances. The supporting cast has been selected pretty well. They lend to the movie and its mood. The scene where the two henchmen hired to beat up Abhay start quarrelling amongst themselves as to who has to break his finger was hilarious and yet so frightening.

I think the only critique I have is that the pace completely slacked from about 30 mins into the movie, right up to the end. Now you might wonder at that - at why a movie that’s slow paced, a cardinal sin for a thriller, be even mention-worthy. Well that according to me is because of the directorial style. Hats off to Navdeep. I think if he hadnt been the co-writter of the movie as well, if he hadnt felt the need to portray a 100 small, inconsequential scenes, he might have understood the editor's pleas to cut-cut-cut. And the movie would have been a better hit at the box office.

Soundtrack wise I think they’ve done well. The music (the times that I did pay attention to it) blended well with the scene and put you right in rural Rajasthan. The climax was a bit disappointing, in the sense, the plot was fine. But the element of drama, of revealing the all-important game plan in a sudden flourish, was missing. Sigh. So many things working and all it required was a little slicker editing. Are you listening Navdeep? Next time, hear the editor out, ok?

Rating: *** 1/2

A harsh review

And of course Wikipedia