Vishal Bharadwaj, who is famous for his onscreen renditions of Shakespearean works, seems to have shifted his loyalty to Ruskin Bond. After reel translation of his children’s novel Blue Umbrella, Vishal is once again set to adapt Ruskin’s short story The Seven Husbands into his Saat Khoon Maaf. Starring Priyanka Chopra, this is one movie which is garnering a lot of interest not only due to its supposed star cast but also because of the story.
The protagonist, played by Priyanka, is a temptress who murders her seven husbands. A reserved and beautiful Anglo-Indian, she is intelligent and ingenious and has an interesting characterization. Not wishing to reveal much Ruskin however let out an interesting fact, “She is so smart that she even gives an old husband of hers an overdose of Viagra who of course can’t take it.” However, if you thought that this film, like Vishal’s previous works, will be full of bold dialogues and peppered with intimate scenes, you are in for another surprise. Saat Khoon Maaf will be devoid of all these, so much so that even the murder scenes are said to be pretty nonviolent.
As far as the casting is concerned, there has already been lots of speculation. From Mohanlal to Gerard Butler (yes, you read right!), practically every actor was rumored to be a part of this film. However, as of now, the tentative ‘Secret Seven’ are Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Anu Kapoor, an undisclosed Russian/American actor and Vivaan Shah. An interesting fact to note is that whileNaseeruddin Shah is playing the oldest husband, his 20-yr old son Vivaan Shah will be donning the role of one of the younger ones. The entire cast is excited about getting a chance to play something new, but none as much as Priyanka. If you thought playing the National award winning character of Meghna Mathur in Fashion or 12 different characters in What’s Your Raashee was the toughest for Priyanka, she tweets to differ , “Saat Khoon Maaf is the most difficult role of my life”.
The shoots currently going on in Coorg and is expected to complete sometime soon. Let’s hope that after Kaminey, the combination of Vishal and Priyanka turns out to be second time lucky at the box office.
