Spicezee Bureau
Mumbai, Feb 13: ‘The Stoneman Murders’, that was expected to be an off-beat film, turned out to be a dud at the Box Office. The film, based on the real-life incident of serial killings by a ruthless killer dubbed as the ‘Stoneman’, has received cold response from the audience.
In the film, writer-director Manish Gupta takes us into era when technology was tenuous and crime meant smuggling and racketeering rather than extortion and terrorism. The flick sees Kay Kay Menon playing a ruthless, arrogant cop. Under the patronage of his superior Menon carries out a secret unofficial investigation of the Stoneman case. But the official police investigator of the case, inspector Arbaaz Khan clashes incessantly with Menon as both of them, separately dwell deeper into the case. The police struggle for clues and hints and the Stoneman continues to claim victim after victim.
But the viewer is smart enough not to presume those characters to be the culprit, towards whom the narrative is straightforwardly directing. And sadly, the director’s attempt at diverting attention shows off. The delusional thrills appear hilarious instead of thrilling.
The film does nothing to redeem the sense of claustrophobic dread that shrouds the characters on either side of the law. The moments created to establish a link between the private life and public investigations of the cops are so stagey you wonder if they were written and shot to deliberately deflect attention from the main business at hand, namely the messy killings.
But the film gets inventive towards the end. It seeks out a neat end to the gruesome murders involving intrigue and Satanism within the police force. The shock value is applied with jolting generosity at the climax. But the suspense element in most of the narrative is depleted by the restricted space in which the characters manoeuvre their motivations.
The enormity of the multiple-murder crimes is quite often restricted to showing pictures from the newspapers or glimpses of sprawled bodies on pavements. By the time Kay Kay Menon, as gritty and honest on camera as ever, cracks the case, our patience with this dark and gloomy chronicle of the grisly goings-on has run thin. Even the cop-and-criminal chases in dimly-lit subways and railway stations fail to get our adrenaline running.
The pit is reached in the scenes between the suspended cop Kay Kay and his screen wife (Rukhsar) whose exchanges are more in the nature of a radio skit than a film where marital discord is a vital clue to the murderous plot.
Rusksar is even put through an entirely unnecessary bare-backed sequence. And we can only gape in wonder as ladies in a beer bar break into an item song.
This serial killing story badly needs bailing out. Kay Kay Menon, with his strong, wry unsmiling presence, brings grit to the feeble drama. Arbaaz Khan as his adversary in the police department has nothing much to do. A couple of supporting performances try to flesh out the shadowy scenario.
The film appears a bit behind the time and fails to ignite interest. Two damp cheers!
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