Review: Manorama - Six Feet Under

Desert Rose
Pratim D. Gupta

Jack Nicholson got his nose slashed in Chinatown because his Jake Gittes was “a very nosy fellow”. Abhay Deol gets a gash on his forehead in Manorama because his Satyaveer Randhawa has a phata kopal.
Navdeep Singh’s directorial debut is an intriguing tribute to Roman Polanski’s cult noir thriller and not another copy-paste job. Even if he didn’t have Abhay watching a scene from Chinatown on TV, those who have seen the original would know where the difference lies. Just like in Zinda, where Sanjay Gupta conveniently bypassed the incest angle when copying the Korean film Old Boy, Navdeep keeps stressing the mother plot to stay away from Chinatown’s “she’s my sister and my daughter” premise. And it is there, in that last half-an-hour, when things tumble out of the box, that he loses grip on what till then was a fine piece of old-school film-making.
Satyaveer aka SV (Abhay) is a failed writer who hasn’t kept a single copy of his only detective novel Manorama even though only 200 of them have ever been sold. One of them is read by Manorama (Sarika) who finds enough in the pages to appoint SV as a private eye to follow her husband (irrigation minister Rathore played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and freeze-frame him in compromising positions.
Before you know it she is dead and SV, still recovering from his second honeymoon romp with his wife (Gul), is in the middle of his first case. Add his malpua-eating saala sub-inspector Brijmohan (Vinay) and Manorama’s fishy roommate Sheetal (Raima) to the proceedings and the small desert town of Lakhot in Rajasthan comes alive.
But then what you see is not what you get. Staying true to the genre, Navdeep spins his yarn like a veteran, sprinkling clues and characters judiciously. Well-paced, superbly shot and laced with sharp dialogues, Manorama is quite a watch till the backstories start getting too heavy and do not stack up on closer scrutiny.
Each member of the ensemble cast, including the two goons who keep roughing up SV is well cast. Effectively controlled, Abhay shows great potential as the reluctant sleuth who gets dragged into a bloody mess. Gul Panag is quite brilliant. Playing the sloppiest of characters, that of the nagging wife, she mixes warmth and humour. And yes, she and Abhay share what must be the most passionate Bollywood screen kiss in a long time. Another high point is the extended Raima-Abhay interplay across the aquarium. Vinay Pathak is, as usual, infectious.
You may have to dig “six feet under” to rearrange the storyline chronologically but even then Manorama is recommended.