Review : My wife’s murder

The RGV camp innovates and tries new things. MWM is one such novel effort. And although different, this films lack the pace, and the power to keep one engrossed. This is a fine film, but you can’t call it gripping.

Ravi Patwardhan (Kapoor) is a film editor, working with apprentice Reena (Sen). Ravi is married to suspicious Sheela (Krishnamurthy), who doubts Ravi and Reena’s relationship, and harangues Ravi about it no end. Reena meanwhile, daughter of a moneyed man, is living in with her boyfriend (Tandon), but sympathizes with Ravi’s frustrations at home.

Sheela’s parents invite Sheela, Ravi and their two children on a trip to Shirdi with them, but Ravi pleads work and refuses to go. He does ask Sheela to go if she wants to. This stokes Sheela’s jealousy, and she nags mild Ravi about his supposed affair with Reena again. In a subsequent marital squabble, Ravi pushes Sheela, and she falls hitting her head on the wooden bed bolster. Unexpectedly she dies. Ravi panics and disposes of the body. When her parents raise a hue and cry about her dissapearance and file a police complaint, Inspector Tejpal Randhawa (Irani) gets in hot pursuit. His number one suspect : Ravi.

Philip’s direction although adequate, falters in some sequences. The actors do well, whether it be Kapoor with his depiction of a broken, listless man, or Krishnamurty in her effective potrayal of a shrill nag. Sen imbues her character with the right nuances; an apprentice sure, but are there hidden feelings for her boss ? Tandon as the live-in boyfriend, torn between jealousy and self-preservation, is very good. Irani excels in his role of food-chomping Inspector Tejpal, appearing fair and conniving at the same time. The character of Sheela’s father’s is essayed well by Abhijit Lahiri.

The cinematography and the look of the film is realistic – Ravi’s home is as middle-class as it should be. Dialogues are apt. However, I found the background score problematic, in that it didn’t help build suspense in a film where it was sorely needed. Also the film should have been tauter; it drags needlessly in some sequences. The ending lacks finality and the satisfaction a movie-goer expects, kind of like in the Matrix, where you expected closure, but at the end they told you to come see it in Part 3. If the USP of the film is potraying the cat-and-mouse game between the police and the supposedly innocent man, it succeeds, but that’s pretty much it.

The above notwithstanding, MWM is definitely worth a watch.