Manorama Six Feet Under is an interesting, and at times, a mind-bending thriller – I’m sure that’s reason enough to call it an offbeat Hindi films. The film is an Indian rendition of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown. The protagonist is a small-time writer who, while investigating a powerful politician for infidelity, gets inadvertently drawn into a sordid conspiracy filled with blackmail, deceit, murder, and well, much more. Set in the rural badlands of Rajasthan (expertly framed by the DOP), the film is well-paced and boasts of a captivating plot, more so if you haven’t already watched the Polanski masterpiece. And the iconic role of Jack Gittes (immortalized by Jack Nicholson) is here played by Abhay Deol. Though never close to Nicholson’s volcanic performance, Deol's is pretty good nonetheless. Raima Sen too is good as a mysterious girl who Deol, despite being a married man, finds himself falling for, while Kulbushan Kharbanda and Vinay Pathak are very effective in their respective roles. A lot about the plot might seem borrowed from the neo-noir classic it is based on, yet there’s also a lot of novelty here which seems like a whiff of fresh air amidst the travesty regularly dished out by Bollywood in the name of cinema. And, given that the director came clean about his reference by showing a glimpse of the famous nose-slashing scene in Chinatown, it’s easy to appreciate the fact that he isn’t just a good filmmaker, but an ardent cinephile too.
Director: Navdeep Singh
Genre: Thriller/Crime Thriller/Neo-Noir
Language: Hindi
Country: India
