The Stoneman Murders: thrill ride all the way
How does one talk about a slasher movie without revealing anything about the plot? Well, The Stoneman Murders, is a slasher movie, so the only thing that can be revealed is what we have already been told by its makers – that it is a big screen take on the unsolved Mumbai stoneman killings of the mid-1980s.
It is a movie that had every opportunity to descend to levels of nonsensical simplicity like the usual slasher movies, of the Hollywood B-grade variety often imitated by Indian filmmakers. But no, Manish Gupta holds firmly to a taut screenplay, and debuts with a thrilling ride for the viewer, with Kay Kay Menon carrying the film almost solely on his shoulders with a bravura performance.
Gupta had written Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar, and directed one segment of RGV’s Darna Zaroori Hai. Seems he imbibed the best of the RGV genre while working within the ‘factory’ set up. The result is one of the best thrillers to come out of the Hindi film industry in recent times.
Thanks to the requirement of the story, the film happens almost entirely at night, and the many a scene is quite brilliantly set up by Gupta and cinematographer Srikanth Naroj. Gupta’s film comes with all the elements of a thriller – crisp pace, no hint of the identity of the killer till the end and an interesting end-game that has a touch of reality.
Gupta takes a clear dig at police’s failure to solve the case, by merrily twisting the climax.
Kay Kay Menon is once again in his elements as the suspended cop launching a parallel investigation into the killings with the blessing of his superior, and he is the life of the film. Virendra Saxena comes up with a very interesting cameo, and Vikram Gokhale is his usual self in a role that does not require him much to do. Arbaaz Khan – well, he is trying to be ‘different’ in recent times, and he tries hard here – is sort of okay, and the only weak link in the acting department is Rukhsar of plastic emotions.
Friday the 13th – the date when the film releases – could turn out to be a lucky day for Gupta, and should, as this is a film that deserves to be seen and praised.
Tags: Kay Kay Menon, Manish Gupta, The Stoneman Murders
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
have been hearing terrific reviews about it everywhere.. looking forward to it
Awesome film. Wonderfully directed. Slightly dumbed at the end, but still very very good.
I am looking foward to it too…another cult…a?
BTW…Hi anurag…Bombay Velvet kya baath hai…
seems interesting. . .atleast i have an alternative to the ‘filmed by priyadarshan’ expected no-show. . .irrfan thou hast disappointed me often recently
This is having a low key release. Looking forward to it.
Getting a feeling that “memories of murder”, indianized? Like “Zodiac” was americanized MOM…..
I want to see this movie..i hope 80’s have been captured well.
Ok,So 2 movies to watch on the 13th,This one and Gulaal
@Vikram: Gulaal is releasing on March 13th, isn’t it?
Heard a lot about this movie…Must be one hell of a ride with kay kay’s presence…and yet another promising debut director..
I’ll watch this one, but beats me why they kept the movie so low key till a week back.
The great sensual pleasure that I am hoping to derive from the movie is to actually know how Mumbai looked like in 1983.
I think everything else about the movie would actually branch out from how authentically they can bridge that time gap(which though may not be very significant in historical terms, but to me it is the most interesting aspect of the movie)..
I want to know how Sion looked like, I want to know Matunga looked like then.. I saw the making of the movie and I was a bit disappointed because they seemed to actually shoot at VT railway station (with no effort being made to recreate an era.. I maybe jumping the gun here).
Like I said, I really am not interested in knowing how Mumbai looked like in the 1900’s. But to re-visit an era that’s just bygone (60’s, 70’s 80’s) is a great great sensual pleasure.
doubt they would have had the money to do that. they don’t use cell phones, you’d have had to work with that.
@prem_uk. . Zodiac was a true story . . Google it. .
good…will try and watch this rather than go for ‘Billu Barber?’
Sreehari, you’re expecting too much.
You want to know how Sion & Matunga looked like in the 80s? That too, through a low-budget Hindi film? This ain’t Hollywood, man, to blow millions on making sets depicting a different era. So okay, 80s isn’t way back in the past. But still, what do you expect to see? A place with less buildings? Less traffic? Ambassadors, Fiats, Yezdis and Rajdoots on the roads instead of the Hyundais, Hondas and Yamahas?
I can understand if someone is making a movie on the Bombay of the late 1800s or the early 1900s. Then I expect the filmmaker to spend on sets that look realistic. In the case of Stoneman, I expect the movie, which I believe is mostly shot in the night, to reveal much of the surroundings. I am sure the director must be smart enough to realise that he can’t, for example, show an aeriel view of any road with today’s traffic. So he must have only concentrated on the story, not the scenery.
Expectations mostly lead disappointment, so I would go in expecting nothing. That’s how I went in and watched movies like Ek Hasina Thi, Haasil and years back, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. And I know how much I ended up enjoying them.
i guess it wud become mandatory to watch billu after stoneman. life mein balance mangta hai.
OOPs!
“In the case of Stoneman, I expect the movie, which I believe is mostly shot in the night, to reveal much of the surroundings.”
Correction: Forgot to add a ‘not’ before ‘reveal’.
OOps!
“In the case of Stoneman, I expect the movie, which I believe is mostly shot in the night, to reveal much of the surroundings.”
Correction: That should be “not reveal”
Why an English film title?
at last something worthwhile to watch this friday.
I am rooting for this movie..and it will sustain, through the non theatrical channels
Why is everybody dissing “Billu” even before its released ?
Priyadarshan ‘can’ make good movies. He did make some good movies before. Irfan Khan is a very good actor. Give the movie a chance.
Guys lets just not dismiss “Billu” straight away.I had written about the movie long ago on PFC & I still stand by what I’ve written.
I’ll be watching both for sure
thanks for this utpal …
really looking forward to this film
laletta,
)
like I said, it’s a very very personal thing. But those aspects matter to me the most. One of the many amazing things about Thoovanathumbikal to me, was that visual of Lal and Sumalatha walking through Thrisshur railway station at night with the advertisement of “Paraqon Slippers” in the background. Call me weird, but I live for such moments.
And not just the traffic or the buildings, I even want to see what the sly posters on local trains conveyed then.. Was “Kaya Kalp sex clinic” as big as what it is today ?
Call me weird, but I believe that such referrals contribute in a large way to the general public attitude that prevail in a given time and age..
@Sreehari
I wouldn’t call you weird at all, Sreehari. What you wish to see in a movie that harks back to an old era is perfectly understandable. I only meant that if you go in expecting so much attention to detail in a low-budget Indian movie, you may walk out disappointed. Believe me, I am all for authenticity. If the director hasn’t been able to recreate the 80s, I only hope he has conveyed at least a ‘feel’ of it in some clever way. You don’t always need a great budget to get a desired result. I read somewhere that in Gupi Gyan Bagha Byan, Satyajit Ray wanted to show a lot of ‘jugnus’ around a tree. So he had his men sit on the tree (at night, of course) and flash lots of pencil torches. The effect was exactly what he desired. When I had seen the film, I never realised that they weren’t actual fireflies. That’s genius, don’t you think?
Laletta,
)
Where am I demanding a re-build of the whole city?
A film is all about what’s in the frame and what’s not- Scorsese.
It’s not even about authenticity. It’s about giving me a vibe that could be forced, implied or occluded in it’s construction but one that retains it’s aura for the entire duration of the frame. I am not asking for the heart, but the groin
Sreehari Aniya,
Point taken.
Or should I say,”Touche”?
Is it a remake of Naseer-Kanwaljeet’s mid 80s Shart?
Hi,
I just saw this film (for free..by some means)…
I now regret not catching it on big screen…
Unfortunately it is a very professionally done thriller with very unprofessional promotions…it deserved a much better marketing team…
Best of luck to Manish Gupta for future…