While most of the remakes in the Hindi film industry are just a mere work of copy-paste or are just a rendered addition of unnecessary elements such as songs and love angles, there are few remakes which light up the rays of hope, as their main motive is only a tribute to a work of art which they have loved or appreciated rather than being made just for the means of business. And one such fine remake is the 2007 film Manorama: Six Feet Under, directed by Navdeep Singh and featuring Abhay Deol, Gul Panag, and Kulbhushan Kharbana in the main roles.
The film is a tribute to Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and draws just an idea of the plot from this classic and is placed in a small deserted town in Rajasthan, Lakhot. The opening scene itself creates a mood as the protagonist Satyaveer Randhawa introduces the peacefully disturbing tale of the town and how his life is the same as the fate of this small town which remains an underdog in the nation. No one ever knows what’s happening here!
The film follows the story of a suspended junior engineer of the Public Works Department, Satyaveer (Deol), how he comes across a woman who pretends to be the wife of a local and strong politician of the town. Satyaveer turns a private detective and spies on the wrongdoings of the politician Rathore (Kharbanda). The film is filled with layers of mysteries and suspense as it goes deeper in the town and the story which has been disclosed for a long time.
The story takes various turns which makes it more interesting, from dark humor to unexpected twists, change of relationships, etc. This film states that a noir or thriller needs no dark themes or scattered cinematography. The film follows a linear storyline and keeps its characters more real and subtle to their tones. The ending is one of the best we have ever seen in any Hindi film.
The film also stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raima Sen, and Vinay Pathak. This film is definitely one of the underappreciated films in the last decade. A must watch if you haven’t seen it. The film is available on Amazon Prime.
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