Article Updated 21 August, 2005 02:35:09 PM IST   My Wife's Murder By Prema K. ©2005 Bollyvista.com   Only a ten-year-old could have conceived this film. And probably it was made keeping that age group in mind. Of course, there's nothing wrong with the look of the film or the performances but the concept is silly. It's not because it's something new to Bollywood but it ends in a silly fashion. All's well that ends well type, that just doesn't jell with the rest of the film. Ravi Patwardhan (Anil Kapoor) is a middle class man who seems to be a video editor. The editing machine and the tapes tell us so. Someone truly said that a man who is unhappily married can never ever be really happy, particularly when he has a nagging wife. Matters become worse when she's a housewife. At least, there could have been scope for an extra-marital affair if she had been a working woman! So the unhappy husband spends a lot of time in the editing studio with his dutiful assistant, Reena (Nandana Sen). This gets his wife, Sheela (Suchitra Krishnamoorthy), very suspicious and she accuses him of having an affair with her. Things go out of hand one day, when she nags him endlessly and pushes him too far. He raises his hand on her. She slaps him back and he pushes her. Her head hits the wooden carving of the bed and she dies on the spot. So far it feels like an amateur school play. This scene particularly, looks very amateurish. A shocked Ravi has to act fast. The maid comes in at this point for the day's work followed by the kids returning home from school. Ravi does all that he can to hide the body then goes out to dispose it. This latter bit is slightly spooky. Also the bit when he has a nightmare after he disposes of his wife's dead body, is scary. The pace drops in places after this. It's a very dark film and it makes one wonder why the audience would want to sit through it. The ending makes you wonder why the need for the one and a half long drama! Now for the performances. Anil Kapoor is first rate. He makes his character and the entire situation that he's trapped in, very believable. But we wonder why he never changes his clothes throughout the film. He looks very boring. Boman Irani is superb. He does add a bit of excitement to the film with his investigation and cross-questioning. He is also a very interesting character and makes people laugh in an otherwise grim film. Suchitra Krishnamoorthy is good as the nagging wife. Nandana Sen and Rajesh Tandon are natural. The children too are natural and make one feel sorry for them. The background score by Amar Mohile is good. Good cinematography by P.S. Vinod. But on the whole, a film with very bleak prospects. Even the multiplex audience may not want to sit through a slow-paced film like this one. ** (two stars) *poor; **average; ***good; ****very good; *****excellent   close   Print this Article http://www.bollyvista.com   http://www.bollyvista.com/article/a/29/5393