Serial Killings …Scene in India
Serial killings …it’s one of the most over used plot by Hollywood over the years and even successfully. IMO one of the best movie on a serial killer is seven starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman …directed by David Fincher.What marks the movie above the rest, is its jaw dropping climax……Kevin spacey does a splendid job in a cameo role.
The most recent movie based on serial killings will be zodiac.Zodiac …Perhaps not among the best work of David Fincher but still ahead of many other movies from this genre. Zodiac is based on Robert Graysmith’s book which in return is based on true events that occurred in San Francisco in late 60’s and 70’s.The story goes like, there was a serial killer who called himself zodiac and admitted all his killings by writing letters to the press and challenging them by giving away his identity in ciphers.gosh..can you actually imagine this guy kills someone and then writes ciphers and letters of admittance …guess real life is far more filmy then reel life.David Fincher’s story moves in a steady pace and captures the emotional journey of the people involved in tracking down this killer. The lead character is Robert Graysmith (The author of the book) which is portrayed effectively by Jake Gyllenhaal of Brokeback Mountain fame.
And who can forget Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Anthony Hopkins won a well deserving academy award for this, though his total screen time was not more than 20 mins in the movie.Then there is bone collector with Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington, also prequel and sequel to Silence of the Lambs and many more movies around this plot.
In India we don’t have enough movies revolving around this plot.I can only remember Samay which was heavily inspired from Seven.I remember watching a Marathi movie way back on doordarshan called as “Maphicha Sakshidaar” in which the lead role is played by Nana patekar.This movie is based on true events that took place in Pune in 70’s famously known as Joshi-Abhankar Case. I don’t know what happened of the movie now …for what I remember is that it was an engaging piece of cinema with some really good acting by the lead actors.If anyone has any more thoughts on this movie please share it… From what I have heard and read ,Anurag Kashyap’s Paanch is based on these events only …..i have not seen Paanch so I am not in a position to comment if it’s totally a serial killer based movie.
Indian film industry has not explored this genre and there is lot of scope and subplots to be explored ……Please let me know your favourite serial killer flicks and any other Indian Movie based on serial killing.Also If Paanch is not getting released then Anurag should release it on youtube atleast….we are endlessly waiting to watch this one ………aren’t we???
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
@Anand,
Last year I saw Kamal Hasan’s film
Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu, which is based on serial killing.
Ketan Anand’s “Shart” was such film in Hindi. In case you have to idea about Shart, you may find a post on Shart at PFC also.
RK,
i will chk out the post on Shart … ..i was alwasy intrigued by this genre (if u can call so)..so much of pschological behaviour of human mind can be explored..
There was a master piece “Sigappu Rojakkal” by Barathiraaja in 1979 starring kamal, remade as “red Rose” by the master himself in Hindi with Rajesh Khanna in lead. This was followed by “Moodu Pani” by the great Balu Mahendra starring Prathap Pothen and set to wonderful music by Ilaiyaraja. Years later a little known Kalaivanan Kannadasan would make “Kann Simitttum Neram” about a bungling psycho killer after a lady doctor and who loses his memory in between to make matters worse. The lead star was Karthik and later this movie would be remade into Hindi as Sailaab starring Madhuri dixit. There was another Serial Killer movie in Telugu starring Dr.Rajasekhar, revolving primarily around a film unit in ooty whose members start dying one by one in the hands of a killer. More recently Kamal starred in Kalaignan(1994) a dud about a psycopath killing girls involved with a musician and “Aalavandhaan” (Abhay) which had a more in depth look into the mind of a psycopath. Reently thamizh film “Katradhu Thamizh” with Jeeva as hero dwelt about some aspect of serial killers. More movies can be unearthed, but none of them follow the hollywood approach and take a rathe rsympathetic approach reasoning out emotionally the causal reasons for turning into a psycopath. Deliberately avoided from the discussions are mind numbing remakes of hollywood movies like Silence of the Lambs. Thankfully we have not had the tradition of “Slasher” flicks like friday the 13th or Halloween in India.
The best film ever made on serial killing has to be Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER, based on Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon. It is arguably the best of the Hannibal Lector series, but much more than that, it is that rare film that gets under the skin, rather than blaring all of its tension-horns. Brian Cox is what Hannibal Lector should have been, rather than the incredibly loud portrayal by Sir Hopkins.
The most difficult part for a film of this kind is to show the part of realisation on the part of the cop/detective, and to convey it to the audience. Manhunter is probably the only film I’ve seen that is convincing on that count, and goes much beyond that.
And as for Zodiac, it is Fincher’s greatest work. For my review of the film, which I regard as the greatest accompishment of 2007, please click on the link below.
http://movie-place.blogspot.com/2008/01/zodiac-movie-review.html
truly agree with satish naidu when he is saying that
“Brian Cox is what Hannibal Lector should have been, rather than the incredibly loud portrayal by Sir Hopkins.” Sir Hopkins has done great job but whenever I look at him, even now, I feel he looks like a maniac, psycho. This happened to me even before I saw Silence of the Lambs.
@ANAND I have seen “MAFICHA SAKSHIDAR” NANA!! WOW!! It was wonderful performance by him. I think it is one of the earliest by NANA.
funny that you brought it up , i ‘ve been pondering about it ever since watching Zodiac few days back . there is a real dearth of original serial killer movies in hindi cinema , whatever has been made with possible exception of “red rose” have been heavily inspired from hollywood.
would vidhu vindo chopra’s “Khamosh” fall under this genre or is it a murder mystery? :-?
films in this genre are churned out at regular intervals down south recent one being “Anusaya”in telugu
from hollywood i think “The Cell” was a rather unusual and exotic film on this theme . i know lot of people didnt dig it but i loved that movie. of course silence of the lambs remains the best in the genre
i wanna watch MAFICHA SAKSHIDAR again…searched the web but couldn’t find…
@Satish
I did like Manhunter better. I had seen that before Silence of the Lambs.
I havent seen MAFICHA SAKSHIDAR. I did see Zodiac but I love Seven. It is one of my favourites. And Jackie Shroff is no Kevin Spacey.
@JaiGanesh
I do not think Sigappu Rojakkal is one of the better movies of Bharatiraaja. I have always felt that it was more manipulative than effective. I haven’t seen the others you have mentioned though.
@Anand
May be we don’t have enough lunatic murderers in India provided if we don’t count our politicians :D
‘Maphicha Sakshidaar’ hmmmn…another Marathi movie I should look for. Thanks.
@morph
I don’t think ‘khamosh’ qualifies as a serial killer flick.
what about “sangharsh(akshay kumar, Priety Zinta) and “SShhh…”(dino moreo, taanisha)????
What about “Sangharsh(akshay kumar, Priety Zinta) and “SShhh…”(dino moreo, taanisha)????
Also u can add “Baaz- bird in danger” (Karishma Kapoor, Dino Moreo, Suniel Shetty)
There was this really old malyali flick of Mamoonty called “Oru CBI Diary Kurippu”, not sure if I have got the name right. It was a good killing movie (more of the investigation) rather than the serial killing part but still quite interesting.
I liked the first half of Vetayadu Villayadu but like all other Gautam Menon flicks, the ending has a problem and there is some eulogizing of the killers and the debauchery is a little too much
I love Seven and although know the storyline still see it for its worth. There is a really old serial killing film from the master of this genre, Alfred Hitchcock, “Frenzy”. I quite like that one also and its not too dark.
I think one of the most fascinating movies in this subject was the made for TV movie Citizen X about the rostov ripper Andrei Chikatilo.
the imagery of the place ,loneliness of the detective ( one amazing performance by Stephen Rea ) and a cast that included Sutherland , Max Von Sydow)
sangharsh was heavily inspired from silence of the lambs…hmm akshay kumar as sir anthony hopkins…
shhh… and baaz…bird in danger..2 more added to the hindi list
add DUSHMAN (kajol, ashutosh rana) to the list
u can add two more
Vadh (Nana Patekar)
Khamosh- Khauff ki raat (Juhi Chawla, Dir: Dipak Tijori)
will dushman qualify as serial killer flic k.. :-?:-?
why not? Ashutosh Rana used to rape and kill girls.
it was long time back when i saw dushman …Ashutosh Rana kills one of the Kajol’s….are the other killings shown ??? ..i dont remeber …man my memory ….:(
It is shown in the film that Ahsutosh Rana used to hunt for girls, rape and kill them. Police was also searching for him. so u can consider Gokul Pandit (Ahutosh Rana) as a serial killer.
Neeraja ,
There are really some good marathi movies here and there …but due to lot of crap being churned out from marathi movies these movies get lost …some day i will compile all the good marathi movies …
so ashutosh rana is the no 1 serial killer in india
… sangharsh and dushman ..
most of the scenes from Dushman were blatantly ripped off from “Eye for an Eye ” x(
Some time ago a film was announced based on Moninder Singh Pandher with raza murad portraying him , wonder if its still on . That could one chilling serial killer movie if done well .
@comment 9 , india has its share of serial killers . the ones that i can recall on top of my head are Moninder Singh Pandher and another psycho in Andhra who used to target prostitutes on National Highway 7.
There was also this man in mumbai who used to kill ppl staying on the footpath by thrashing a huge rocks on their face…
yeah good
now we are slowly coming of age
searching for the movies on seriall killers in india
great going
:-j
let me suggest next category to search for #-o
aaaah yesss
’samurai’ movies made in india
*-:)
Sarang,
coming in 1979 it did, I felt surely Sigapu Rojakkal was a great movie. It was manipulative for sure(last i heard, all movies are manipulative make believe tools. for honesty and realism, I watch documentaries). It was the first story of a serial killer in Thamizh and coming from Barathiraaja who was labelled as a village film maker, it was a surprise. Kamal and Sridevi vied for acting honours in that movie with Raaja’s stupendous BGMs. The final half an hour of no dialogues and deafing silence in which heartbeats of the woman getting chased sounding more louder than that of the killer’s footsteps was a new thrilling experience for the thamizh audience. Those were genuinely scary moments and the proper anti-hero was born on the screen and it had to be Kamal playing that role.
One movie I left out was “Ucha Kattam” (climax) released around the early eighties, this was about a lunatic escaping from asylum to seek revenge on his wife and in the process goes on a killing spree. The lunatic was surprisingly(effectively) played by the gentleman actor Sarath babu. I dont remember the details of the crew and director, but that movie had ARS playing his quintessential role of Police investigator in pursuit. A separate post is required to discuss BaluMahendra’s Moodu pani where Shobha and Prathap played out their roles so beautifully well. That movie had the usual misogynist psycopath, but with less tears for the psycopath.
As far as Bollywood is concerned, I think there is a real dearth of good investigative thrillers. All we get to see are mostly some remade tripe (or tripe remade as worse tripe). I feel that this genre has been much more well-exploited in the south, especially in Malayalam with the “CBI Diarykkurippu” movies or old movies like “Yavanika” or with some (not all) Shaji Kailas movies and maybe in Tamil with Vettaiyadu Vilayadu (and some of the older movies).
I donno how I missed this,
There was a Malayalam movie with Captain Raj which was quite a rage for its explicit content. was titled as “Pavam Koduran” or something. was dubbed in thamizh as well adn met with quite a lot of B.O.Success. I dont know if it was good or bad, but coming in the 80s was labelled as one of those sleazy flicks.
@nitin…
its pretty difficult to throw in a song sequence in the middle of a investigative thriller …
guess that explains the lack of them in bollywood…
Dpac, that’s what Dance Bar sequences are for! Case in point, Sarfarosh, and pretty much any Mahesh Bhatt “crime-thriller”…
Hey Vishrant (comt 26).. there’s this 80’s movie starrin Mithun called “Karate”… would that count as a “Samurai” movie?
:-?
I had actually written a synopsis/rough treatment on for a serial killer movie… It revovled around the state of mind and whole psychology of a guy whose wife leaves him… He doesn’t snap though, more or less unravels slowly… everytime he meets someone new (in a sincere attempt to move on), he can’t get his wife out of his head… he ends up killing each girl, promising himself he won’t do that with the next girl… or the next one after that…
Wrote it years ago… A writing instructor told me that it wasn’t completely satisfying or some ambigious critism like that, so I just left it, stopped developing it altogether… Maybe this weekend I’ll dig it out…
@Tony (31)
i should have said ‘luvy dovey mushy song sequence in the middle of a investigative thriller
@JaiGanesh
Thanks for replying. It has been sometime since I have been thinking about Sigappu Rojakkal (SR). I do appreciate it for the fact that it was made by Bhaaratiraaja who always excels in the village ‘based’ stories. The movie does have lot of scenes that do give one the scare. There a few nicely shot moments as well. (Like the ones you mentioned). But, it still left me wanting.
One of the scenes that I found to be fake and sticking out is the end scene where Sridevi’s character ‘waits’ for her ‘hero’ to return and how Kamal’s caracter has ‘love’ for his wife and not ‘competition’ since he does NOT like to lose. I think it was not convincing enough for me.
It is worth appreciating that the director has taken multiple angles to show the character of the killer but it could have been way better. (I think it has nothing to do with 1979/2009) I love the other movies he has made irrespective of when. Anyway, I do need to get my hands on the other movies and we could discuss that too.
anand, the film you’re referring to in comment 25 is the stoneman.. i had just read about this on rediff a couple of weeks ago, since a film is being planned on this killer.. kay kay menon and arbaaz khan are starring with manish gupta at the helm and bobby bedi as producer.. am looking fwd to this one..
more on stoneman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoneman
rediff link:
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/jan/16stone.htm
Anand , I am sure u might have heard of Saw ..if u refer it on a game with is based on killing …punch line goes like this ..”How much blood can u shed to stay alive”..I liked the plot and the screenplay as well …its an intelligent script..specially the climax and the music of Saw makes you sit on the edge..One great movie of its kind…
i am not a fan of saw series….ya but u call add it to the list
striker,
thanks for the info….i will be looking forward to it..man kay kay menon as serial killer will be awesome movie watch…..someone should also make a movie on monkey-man from delhi…:)
Saw is not a serial killer movie. It is a horror film.
Thanks HG for the info..i have not seen a single part of SAW series ….
Saw is very much a serial killer movie , horror arises from the devious methods which the killer employs to kill his chosen victims .
Saw was a very interesting concept and extremely well executed for most part .
Part 2 sucked and was tooo gimicky.
Part 3 again was good and had few surprises in store for series followers
Havent seen Saw 4 yet.
Morph, Can all Indian films be categorized as musical films? Anyway, the concept of “Saw”, is not based on serial killing. Saw is more of a Horror Game.
anand, though it would be a pretty intense movie to watch with kaykay as the stoneman himself, according to the article it looks like he and arbaaz are actually cops investigating the case..
if one were to go by the wiki definition of serial killer, SAW is very much a serial killer movie, with the only difference that the audience knows who the killer is. that they’ve “promoted” it as a horror film, which is debatable, is different. by that method, even the “hostel” movies would be considered horror, but they are not (they’re actually comedy). these movies, which are meant more for “shocking” the audience (rather than “scaring” them) with grotesque images of people getting murdered is a new unheard-of genre called troma, which has been steady in the indie scene for quite some time now. if you know the B-horror movie scene in the US, you would’ve heard of them.. it’s just that movies like hostel and SAW are bringing it to the forefront, which is just friggin’ awesome, but the term itself remains pretty much unheard of..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troma
even the
Aggree with u about seven. After that the only film comes in my mind as hounting and based on seriel killing is ‘Memories of Murder’ a korien film by Bong Joon Hoo.
Hmmmmm.
Kamal Hasan in Appu Raja.
Most original concept in India IMHO
Just surprised How we have missed mentioning the Oscar winner movie ‘Monster’(2003) starring Charlize Theron. Is based on true story of a prostitute called Aileen Wuornos who became a serial killer.
the trailer for “stoneman” is here.. it was looking intriguing until i saw the item number…
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/mar/11video1.htm