Manorama Six Feet Under Movie Review: Offbeat Thriller

Manorama: Six Feet Under, the debut effort of director Navdeep Singh reveals his mastery over the medium as he gives us a thriller which comes close to the film noir tradition. The film has been extremely well shot and there are some stunning visuals in it as well. While film does get off to a very interesting start, it sputters a little in the middle and the end. There seems to be a little confusion somewhere which doesn't quite add up.

The film has an interesting opening. It fact, it opens quite with a bang. Abhay Deol or Satyaveer Singh as his character is called in the movie, is a failed writer, making ends meet with his job as a PWD engineer. He spends his spare time writing and dreaming of becoming a famous writer of detective stories. He has one published book to his credit called Manorama, only 200 copies of which were sold. Life continues with Satyaveer leading a normal, mundane life with his wife Nimmi (Gul Panag). He continues to accept bribes to support himself. Life takes a turn for the unusual when a mysterious woman, Meenakshi (Sarika) comes to meet Satyaveer and asks him to play detective for her. She hires him for Rs 20,000 and his assignment is to shadow her husband, a powerful politician PP Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda). The reason she gives is that she suspects her husband of having an affair. Satyaveer's dashed, stifled existence gets a chance to redeem itself and he accepts. After this, a series of events unfold, and he discovers that Meenakshi is not the woman she professes to be. And then she dies under some very mysterious circumstances.

Satyaveer begins his own investigation into the matter. He is warned by his brother-in-law, a police inspector played brilliantly by Vinay Pathak. But he continues undeterred. He encounters Sheetal (Raima Sen) and some goons as well who break his fingers. The plot jumps from one track to another. There are conspiracies galore, a corrupt politician, paedophile, etc. Satyaveer is unable to hold himself back and is drawn to this tumultuous turn of events. The film is packed with events and the end may seem a little confusing as all the loose ends are not tied up neatly.

What is truly commendable about the film is the cinematography. Cameraman Arvind Kannabiran has certainly excelled. The end of the film could have been a little clearer. There are a lot of questions which remain unanswered or one could say that events are paced so close together that the link between them seems a little tenuous.

As for the actors, Abhay Deol is quite superb in the film. The best thing about this actor is that he no airs and graces about him. Despite carrying the Deol name, he is neither weighed down by it nor does it intrude into his screen persona. He is absolutely natural and ordinary and delights in his ordinariness. His is a case of superb casting for the role of Satyaveer. Gul Panag who plays his wife does not really have much to do in the film, nothing that calls for her to stretch herself as an actress. Vinay Pathak is another actor who is in a class by himself and he reveals that in this film as well. It is good to see Kulbushan Kharbanda back. The one disappointment in the film is Sarika as she too is hardly there in the film. Raima Sen as Sheetal is just about okay.

The film's greatness lies in its treatment by Navdeep Singh. And ironically that becomes the film's weakness as well. A little more control over the end of the film, where the unraveling happens, would have made this great movie in the noir tradition. But the open-ended story is bound to find a lot of takers. It is slightly off-beat and intriguing in the manner in which the film unfolds and makes for a very interesting viewing despite a languid pace at times.