7 Khoon Maaf


7 Khoon Maaf, released internationally as Seven Sins Forgiven, is a 2011 Indian black comedy film directed, co-written and co-produced by Vishal Bhardwaj. The film stars Priyanka Chopra in the lead role, with Vivaan Shah, Irrfan Khan, Annu Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Naseeruddin Shah and Usha Uthup in supporting roles. The film tells the story of a femme fatale, Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes, an Anglo-Indian woman who causes seven deaths in an unending quest for love.
7 Khoon Maaf is an adaptation of the short story Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond. After Bhardwaj saw the possibility of a script in the short story, he requested Bond to develop the story for a film adaptation. Bond expanded his four-page short story into an 80-page novella, and later Bhardwaj co-wrote the script with Matthew Robbins. The film's musical score was composed by Bhardwaj, and Gulzar wrote the lyrics. Principal photography started in Kashmir before moving to Coorg, where extensive filming was done.
The film opened on 18 February 2011, to universal critical acclaim, with special praise for Chopra's performance. Despite the universal critical acclaim, 7 Khoon Maaf underperformed at the box-office. However, according to its producers, it made a profit by earning a total of for its box-office run and television-music-home-video rights against a production budget of. It premiered at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, receiving several accolades at award ceremonies across India. At the 57th Filmfare Awards 7 Khoon Maaf received four nominations, winning two: the Best Actress Critics Award for Chopra and the Best Female Playback Singer for Uthup and Rekha Bhardwaj's song, "Darling".

Plot

Prologue—

7 Khoon Maaf tells the story of an Anglo-Indian woman, Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes, who murders all her husbands. Susanna tries to find love, but each time of the six of seven times, the husband's flaws prove fatal. The story is narrated by forensic pathologist, Arun, to his wife, Nandini. Arun has known Susanna, who was his rich benefactor, since his childhood, and had a secret crush on her.

Army Major

Susanna's first husband, Edwin Rodriques, is an army major, who is jealous, and possessive. Disabled, he suspects that the beautiful Susanna will be unfaithful and takes out his anger on her. Although Susanna tolerates Edwin's cruelty, she cannot forgive him for blinding her faithful, mute stableboy with a whip. Edwin is eliminated during a panther- hunting trip with the help of her faithful maid, butler, and the stableboy.

Jimmy Singer

Susanna's second husband, Jamshed Singh Rathod, who renames himself Jimmy Stetson after their marriage, is a singer whose flaw is his pride. Jimmy becomes successful and misuses his fame - stealing songs, dalliances with other women, and drugs. Susanna tries to wean him from his addiction, but when he continues in secret, he is disposed of with a heroin overdose. Police investigators find footprints near his body, indicating that a person with six toes is the murderer but Susanna uses her charm to deflect the suspicion.

Poet Khan

Susanna's third husband, Wasiullah Khan , is a soft-spoken, thoughtful poet by day and a sado-masochist by night, the epitome of anger. Susanna tries to cover her bruises; her servants cannot bear to see her mistreated. Khan is ultimately interred in a snowy Kashmiri grave.

Nik the Spy

Her fourth husband, Nicolai Vronsky, is a Russian spy leading a double life, who is enchanted by her. When Susanna discovers he has another wife and family back in Russia, he meets his end in the well housing her pet snakes.

Inspector Keemat

Her fifth husband, Keemat Lal, is a police inspector who has shielded her from prosecution in exchange for sexual favors. His dependence on Viagra proves his undoing; one fateful night, Susanna mixes an overdose of the drug into Lal's drink. At this point, Arun returns from Russia as a doctor. When Susanna tries seducing him, he leaves her.

Doctor Modhu

Modhusudhon Tarafdar is a Bengali doctor who rescues Susanna from a suicide attempt and puts her on a mushroom-only diet. Although she does not want to marry him, he persuades her with a promise that she will be the sole heir of his property. Actually bankrupt, he tries to poison her, in his greed for her inheritance. When her butler dies instead, Susanna shoots Tarafdar during a game of Russian roulette. She then sets the house ablaze in another suicide attempt. her maid dies in her attempt to rescue Susanna.

Epilogue — Seventh Husband

In the forensics laboratory, Arun discovers that the body is not Susanna's but declares her dead to return her favor of educating him. He goes to Pondicherry, looking for Susanna, who has decided to become a nun, in effect making Jesus Christ- representation of love and kindness - her seventh husband.

Cast

Development

The idea for 7 Khoon Maaf came when Ruskin Bond sent his book of Short Story collection to Vishal Bhardwaj. He was intrigued by a four-page story's title named "Susanna's Seven Husbands", and thought it had potential for a novel and a film. Bhardwaj said, "I told myself why would a woman have seven husbands and then I came to know that she also kills them! I was immediately hooked to it. It reminded me of a very old film, Bluebeard's Seven Wives". Bhardwaj suggested the story to a fellow director, who was looking for a good story. However, after reading the short story, the director dismissed it saying it has no film potential. After reading the story twice, he became even more confident about possibility of a film. Bhardwaj who had previously adapted Bond's novel The Blue Umbrella into a film, decided to adapt the short story for the screen. Bhardwaj later requested Bond to turn the story into a novella, noting that only Bond could flesh out the characters well, to which he agreed. Bond expanded the story into an 80-page novella, which later became a 200-page full-length Hindi script. Bhardwaj co-wrote the script with Matthew Robbins.
Bhardwaj noted that he retained Bond's theme, but incorporated his own elements to make the film a dark comedy. He said, "I had previously taken liberties with Shakespeare. Naturally, when you adapt a story, your vision also comes in it. But I have remained honest to its essence". He included Keemat Lal, although the character is not in the original story. Bhardwaj decided to include him in the film as an homage to Bond, explaining that he took liberties with characters' names and traits. Bond also had to devise Indian methods of killing the husbands, which he found challenging: "The challenge was devising seven ingenious ways in which she could kill her husbands without being suspected. And she does it successfully, until towards the end".

Casting and characters

Priyanka Chopra was Bhardwaj's original choice for the role of Susanna after he worked with the actress in Kaminey: He said that Chopra "is the finest actor of her generation right now... As a director I had so much trust on her that I felt that no one else can essay this role as brilliantly as she would do". Mohanlal was cast as one of Susanna's husbands in the film; however, he left the project to concentrate on Malayalam films. The actor was replaced by Annu Kapoor in the role of Inspector Keemat Lal. Other actors in the film were John Abraham, Naseeruddin Shah, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Vivaan Shah. Directors Karan Johar and Imtiaz Ali were approached to play two of the seven husbands, but they reportedly turned down the offer. Usha Uthup was cast as Susanna's maid in the film. Konkona Sen Sharma was confirmed for a cameo appearance.
During production, the film underwent two name changes. The project was initially titled Seven, which became Ek Bataa Saat and finally 7 Khoon Maaf. In the film, Chopra's character ages from 20 to 45, and prosthetic makeup was used for her looks at different ages. Bhardwaj hired Hollywood special makeup effects artist Greg Cannom, who did the makeup for 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, to create seven looks for the character. Chopra found the most challenging period was that of the 65-year-old woman. The actress said, "prosthetics had to play a heavy part but I’m happy that I pushed myself as the result is really fab. I had to be very careful of not doing things that would damage the make-up". To make Chopra look authentic, the makeup team used Chopra's mother's and grandmother's photos to create her look. She had to gain five kg weight to fit her aging character.

Filming

began in March 2010 with Chopra and Irrfan Khan in Kashmir. Locations included Shalimar Bagh and Dal Lake in Srinagar. The cast and crew were provided with two-tier security coverage by the Central Reserve Police Force and the Jammu & Kashmir Police, due to unrest in the valley. The film was also shot in Gulmarg, Delhi and Coorg, which included extensive shooting in the forests. Other locations were Puducherry, Mumbai, Hyderabad and in Russia. During filming Chopra was restricted from eating and drinking while donning the prosthetic makeup.

Soundtrack

The film's score and songs were composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, with lyrics by Gulzar. Its soundtrack contains seven songs and two reprise versions. The soundtrack was digitally released via Ovi internet service on 24 January 2011, and via CD on 25 January 2011. The song "Darling" is based on the Russian folk song "Kalinka", and contains several Russian words. "Kalinka" is credited on the album cover. "Tere Liye", sung by Suresh Wadkar, was not used in the film.
The soundtrack received positive reviews from music critics. The Indo-Asian News Service gave the album 3.5 stars : "Bharadwaj has composed a wonderful album that is not a clone of his previous work. It exudes freshness and is worth listening. However, the songs would not have achieved zenith without Gulzar's lovely lyrics. The team has done it again". Bollywood Hungama rated the album a 3 : "7 Khoon Maaf is a good album with a couple of definite hits, couple of skip worthy ones and the remaining have the potential to grow. Since 7 Khoon Maaf is not a routine Bollywood affair, it can't be expecting a quick pick at the stands from Day One". The Hindustan Times noted that the soundtrack takes the listener through a variety of moods: "Bhardwaj has certainly succeeded in adding new sounds to his catalogue. He continues to evade Bollywood monotony with this soundtrack an innovative effort."

Marketing and release

The film's preview and trailer were released on 24 December 2010 to a positive response from critics, who praised the whole presentation and Chopra's dialogues particularly: "duniya ki har biwi ne kabhie na kabhie toh yeh zarur sochega, ki main apne pati se hamesha hamesha ke liye chutkara kaise paun". Following the preview-trailer launches, Chopra promoted the film by appearing with seven men at the Radio Mirchi FM studio. The succession of marriages and funerals was illustrated at a promotional event for the film, where Chopra appeared as a Catholic bride in a wedding gown holding a bouquet. A short time later she reappeared as a widow in mourning, for her husbands' funerals.
Emphasizing the film's theme, Chopra introduced a "seven ways to lose your Valentine" press kit for reporters at a Valentines Day promotion. The kit contained a rope, a syringe, a knife, a bottle of poison, a sachet of potassium cyanide, an ice pick and a blister pack of Viagra, which was based on Susanna's way to kill her husbands in the film. In February 2011, a book entitled Susanna's Seven Husbands was released by Penguin Books as a collector's edition including the novella, the short story and the film's screenplay.
The film was screened at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival as part of its world premiere in the festival's Panorama section. At the Friedrichstadt Palace an audience of some 2,500 people watched the film on the festival's final evening, giving the director and the nine cast and crew members present a standing ovation when they appeared onstage. 7 Khoon Maaf was originally scheduled for release on 21 January 2011, but was postponed a month to avoid conflicting with Dhobi Ghat. The film was released on 18 February 2011 on about 700 screens across India. Reliance Home Entertainment released 7 Khoon Maaf on DVD in March 2011 across all regions in a one-disc NTSC format. The Blu-ray and Video CD versions were released at the same time.

Critical reception

7 Khoon Maaf released to universal critical acclaim and Chopra's performance was singled out in particular, with many reviewers describing it as "a role of a lifetime". Aniruddha Guha of the Daily News and Analysis rated the film a four and wrote, "For a filmmaker who has long established his hold over the craft, 7 Khoon Maaf is the only way forward – it pushes the envelope and takes you on a cinematic journey you may not experience in a Hindi film for a long time to come". She praised Chopra's performance: "Priyanka Chopra takes on a character that most of her contemporaries would shy away from and enacts it in a way that only she possibly can. For a woman with as many shades as Susanna, Chopra gets a crack at a role of a lifetime. And Bhardwaj ensures she sparkles like never before". The Indo-Asian News Service described the film as a "winner" by Vishal Bhardwaj, rating it four out of five: "Chalk up an absolute winner for the Vishal Bhardwaj-Priyanka Chopra team. They make a coherent vision out of an inconceivable marital crises." Zee News also rated the film four out of five: "Vishal Bhardwaj does it again. The maverick filmmaker has once again woven magic with his latest blockbuster Saat Khoon Maaf, which presents Priyanka Chopra in a never before character".
Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave the film a 3.5 rating, describing it as "serious, sensitive and stirring", "a whole new cinematic experience" and praising Chopra's performance: "7 Khoon Maaf would undoubtedly end up as a milestone in Priyanka Chopra's career graph. The actor displays exquisite command over a complex character that is definitely a first in Indian cinema. She renders a subtle and restrained portrayal of a lonely and wronged woman who wanted love and only love from life". Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times gave 7 Khoon Maaf three out of five stars noting that the film was crafted around strong, effective scenes alone: a lot of them, cleanly cut and clinical, a whole lot immediately compelling, and recommended not to miss the partly captivating film Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film three stars, saying that "7 Khoon Maaf is a dark film that has its share of positives and negatives. However, the film will meet with diverse reactions – some will fancy it, while some will abhor it. The film will appeal more to the critics/columnists and the festival circuit".

Box office

At the box office, the film opened to weak ticket sales across India. It grossed during its first week. By the end of its domestic box office run, the film earned approximately, an underperformance compared to its production budget of. It made an additional from the pre-release sale of music, television, and home video rights. Its producers reported that the venture was commercially successful. Siddharth Roy Kapur said, "7 Khoon Maaf has worked well for us commercially due to a combination of tight production budgeting, optimised spending on prints and publicity and a pre-sales strategy that helped us to de-risk the film via sales of home video, music, satellite and theatrical rights even before the release".

Accolades

7 Khoon Maaf received a number of nominations and won several awards, particularly Best Actress for Chopra. The film received three nominations at the 57th Filmfare Awards, winning two: Best Actress for Chopra and Best Female playback singer for Utthup and Bhardwaj for "Darling". At the Screen Awards the film received five nominations; Chopra won the Best Actor in a Negative Role award. 7 Khoon Maaf won three Producers Guild Film Awards in technical categories: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.
AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient and nomineeResult
BIG Star Entertainment Awards18 December 2011Most Entertaining Film Actor – FemalePriyanka Chopra
Filmfare Awards29 January 2012Best ActressPriyanka Chopra
Filmfare Awards29 January 2012Critics Award for Best ActressPriyanka Chopra
Filmfare Awards29 January 2012Best LyricistGulzar
Filmfare Awards29 January 2012Best Female Playback SingerRekha Bhardwaj & Usha Uthup
Global Indian Music Academy Awards1 October 2012Best LyricistGulzar
Global Indian Music Academy Awards1 October 2012Best Female Playback SingerRekha Bhardwaj & Usha Uthup
International Indian Film Academy Awards9 June 2012Best ActressPriyanka Chopra
International Indian Film Academy Awards9 June 2012Best Performance in a Negative RoleIrrfan Khan
International Indian Film Academy Awards9 June 2012Best Music DirectorVishal Bharadwaj
International Indian Film Academy Awards9 June 2012Best LyricsGulzar
International Indian Film Academy Awards9 June 2012Best Playback Singer - FemaleRekha Bhardwaj & Usha Uthup
Producers Guild Film Awards25 January 2012Best Actress in a Leading RolePriyanka Chopra
Producers Guild Film Awards25 January 2012Entertainer of the YearPriyanka Chopra
Producers Guild Film Awards25 January 2012Best LyricsGulzar
Producers Guild Film Awards25 January 2012Best CinematographyRanjan Palit
Producers Guild Film Awards25 January 2012Best Art DirectorSubrata Chakraborty & Punita Grover
Producers Guild Film Awards25 January 2012Best Costume DesignPayal Saluja
Producers Guild Film Awards25 January 2012Best ChoreographyRaju Sundaram
Screen Awards15 January 2012Best ActressPriyanka Chopra
Screen Awards15 January 2012Best Actor in a Negative RolePriyanka Chopra
Screen Awards15 January 2012Best Supporting ActorNeil Nitin Mukesh
Screen Awards15 January 2012Best Playback Singer FemaleUsha Uthup
Screen Awards15 January 2012Best ChoreographySandeep Suparkar
Stardust Awards25 February 2012Star of the YearPriyanka Chopra
Stardust Awards25 February 2012Best Actress - DramaPriyanka Chopra
Zee Cine Awards22 January 2012Best Actor - FemalePriyanka Chopra
Mirchi Music Awards21 March 2012Female Vocalist of The YearRekha Bhardwaj & Usha Uthup
Mirchi Music Awards21 March 2012Best Song Recording