|
|
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
The sequel to Murder is nothing like the first part of the frenetic
franchise. And Jacqueline Fernandez who has been built up in Murder
2 as the next Mallika Sherawat is nothing like the overrated Mallika….Thank
God for that! Fernandez exudes an unbridled sunniness even when pouting in the
bare minimum. Alas, she doesn`t have much to do in Murder 2 except
swathe the dark drama in a spot of sunshine.
God knows this film about the devil-unleashed, surprisingly written by a woman (Shagufta
Rafique) needs that little of sunshine. It is a desperately dark film. The
characters are wretchedly unhappy. No matter which side of the moral line they
are positioned they are standing screaming into the abyss that is suburban life.
These people need serious help.
This then, is the world Mahesh Bhatt has bequeathed to us. Take it and bleed it.
Director Mohit Suri who earlier took us on a jolting trip through the world of
prostitution, pimps and desperate cops in Kalyug takes the same
route again. On this occasion the journey is far more ruthless and rigorously
implemented to create horror repugnance and hatred for a word that we`ve created
for coming generations.
In the typical Mahesh Bhatt style Murder 2 doesn`t waste time in
back-projections and story build-up. He goes straight for the kill. With
trenchant immediacy director Mohit Suri (back in Kalyug form after
the misfire that was his last film Crook) tells us the story of a
psychopathic killer who kills prostitutes with the pleasure that makes your
stomach churn and look anxiously towards the future about your daughter who is
just stepping into the big wide world.
Who knows if the man sitting next to her in the movie theatre is a
closet-nutcase with a collection of hacksaws in his house, and not to carve up
the Christmas turkey.
Prashant Narayanan as the psychopath plays the character at such an even pitch
he makes your blood freeze in fear and revulsion. Here`s a man who could be that
ghoul who butchered all those kids in the Nethra killings and then ate them up
without a burp.
The `hero` in Murder 2 is a burn-out suspended cop who makes money
out of criminals, stays sullen and haunted throughout the film except when he
goes for the kiss, and offers his girlfriend a wad of notes after making love.
To buy the fridge, he says. Naturally the lady freezes.
Force of habit, we say. Hashmi has done this kind of a role repeatedly. The
kissing and vigorous bedroom activities are quickly taken care of in the first
15 minutes. Wouldn`t want the lovers of the serial kisser to feel they`re being
cheated in favour of the serial killer.
The wacked-out killer in Murder 2 doesn`t eat his victims. He just
cuts them down to sighs…and groans and shrieks of pain and records their dying
voices to get his rockers off….
The plot seems original. The narration is clenched and the characters driven by
a desperate urge to assert themselves before death rings their doorbell.
The savagery with which the college-going call girl (Sulagna Panigrahi) is
brought to her gruesome death becomes a metaphor for the loss of innocence and
the triumph of diabolism that is often garbed in designer labels these days.
Murder 2 is not a pleasant film to view. The psychopath`s killings
are done in graphic detail. The storytelling offers no respite from the
brutality. Most of the time we are looking at happenings that we would rather
not see. But see, we must.
Murder 2 is a mirror of our amoral venomous times when no
relationship is sacred anymore. Mohit Suri remains in command of the murky
material and traumatized characters. While most episodes hold together in a
riveting rhythm of life`s most unsavoury truths, the sequences featuring
Prashant Naraynan work better than the rest of the film. He lends the
proceedings a credibility that is unsettling.
A string of celebrities including Shraddha Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor and Anupam Kher have wished a year full of love, luck and happiness to veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt on his 69th birthday on Wednesday.Read More
After a point, money doesn't motivate: Director Mohit SuriFilm director Mohit Suri, upbeat about his forthcoming movie "Half Girlfriend", says he does not want to get into the "game of Rs 100-crore club" as after a certain level of commercial success, money does not motivate him.Read More