Manorama - 6 Feet Under

Let me go out on a limb right at the start and say that I loved this movie to bits. To think that it will find universal appeal will be foolish.

Summary
The story is based in a hot, drought-hit sleepy town called Lakhot in Rajasthan.
Satyaveer Singh Randhawa (Abhay Deol in a great understated performance) is a junior engineer who is on suspension; charged with taking bribes.
He lives a mundane life with a nagging wife Nimmi (Gul Panag, underutilized but making her presence felt) and a precocious kid Raju.
His real ambition was to be a famous writer; an ambition that died a slow death with the dismal response to his debut pulp novel Manorama featuring a detective called Raghu.
Into this bored to death life drops a female who calls herself Manorama (Sarika, looking older than in her last outing). She is on the lookout for a detective; and since the town doesn't have one to offer, she feels the next best thing would be a writer who wrote a detective novel.
She provides him an assignment which involves spying on a minister and taking his pictures in a compromised position.
What seems a simple task turns out to be a dangerous one as Sarika turns up dead, mowed down by a truck.
Dedicated to get to the bottom of this, Abhay turns himself into his alter ego of Detective Raghu and starts investigating the case.
Nothing is as it seems, as bodies turn up unexpectedly and a twist comes up every few reels.
Abhay also gets bashed by two goons, who keep on following him.
Involved in all the goings-on are Abhay's brother-in-law Sub Inspector Brij Mohan (Vinay Pathak, with a role cut short seemingly on the editing table), Sarika's roommate Sheetal (Raima Sen, wide eyes with riddles written all over them) and minister P.P. Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda; he of the gravelly voice and perennially pragmatic mindset).
The movie moves around at a very languid pace, using the time for putting in red herrings and peeling off layers upon layers at regular intervals.
The climax comes as a silent explosion, without any histrionics and leaves you with the after-taste of a story well told.

Actors
Abhay Deol is turning into the next door simple guy, who doesn't need to go in for exaggerated mannerisms to embellish his acting in any way. He carries the film on his shoulders and does a great job of it.
Vinay Pathak does a nice job as usual, but we feel shortchanged when he doesn't appear for a long time in the second half.
Gul Panag plays her feisty character well and you can almost feel and dread her caustic comments before they come. Raima Sen does an able job of being the mystery woman.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda hasn't lost any of his charisma and stature, as he shows with this movie. His drastic personality changes make you want to see more of this great performer in Hindi films.

Technique
Debutant director Navdeep Singh shows a unique ability to transport you into the frames of the movie. You often end up licking your parched lips just seeing the frames of the desert unfold before you. The pace is slow but relentless, all the better for making a thinking man's thriller.
He surely hasn't targeted the movie at the mass audience, and it shows in the mature handling of the various threads.
Navdeep shares the writing credits with Devika Bhagat, and the story shows deep influences of Roman Polanski's Chinatown (I must mention here that I did not place the connection for a long time after the movie and was pointed in that direction by a friend of mine. I had seen Chinatown a good 8-10 years ago in my childhood, and had no solid memories of it; not being an avid movie buff at that time. The reference made me see it again, and the huge inspirations used in this story are evident).
Dialogues by Abhinav Kashyap and Manoj Tapadia are flawless, curt and memorable.
Arvind Kannabiran's cinematography is as much responsible for the authentic experience as Navdeep Singh's direction. The desert looks enticing, enigmatic and dangerous, all at the same time. The effective use of light and shadows (multi-hued lights in the fish tank, sunlight coming in through latticed walls) makes subtle comments visually.

Trivia

1. Navdeep Singh comes from the world of advertising and has studied film making at the Art Center College of Design at Pasadena. He has a large number of award winning ads to his name. His ad projects include Maruti Alto, Garnier, Lux, Parlé Hiden-n-Seek and MTV.
2. Abhay Deol has been friends with the director since Navdeep came back to India. They thought they shared the same sense of script and humor. Even though this was the case, Abhay was not considered originally for the lead role in this movie as Navdeep thought he would not be able to carry off the role of a small-town guy. Also, the character was supposed to be older and more mature undergoing a semi-mid-life crisis.
   
3. Navdeep doffs his hat to his inspiration Chinatown in a scene which is misplaced. Abhay Deol is seen watching the famous You're a very nosy fellow kitty cat. Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows? scene where director Roman Polaski has a cameo as the goon.
4. The first day of shooting for this film coincided with Gul Panag's birthday, and the crew had a nice bash arranged for her.
5. The cinematographer Arvind Kannabiran has earlier shot My Brother Nikhil, and also worked on quite a few ad projects with Navdeep. Interestingly, the other release of this week: Loins of Punjab Presents also has cinematography by Arvind Kannabiran.
6. Director Navdeep Singh hasn't decided on his next project, but he would like to make a movie on ghosts to show the existence of the supernatural.
7. This was not the first feature film Navdeep wanted to make. There was an earlier script called Chasing Rainbows that he had tried to sell to producers for a few years. It was a more expensive script to produce and the standard response was to bring in a few stars to make it feasible. It revolved around three interconnected characters who realize that sometimes life gives you second chances.
   After Yuva flopped, the minimal interest people had in this script too vanished, as it was thought that multiple, connecting stories don’t work in Hindi films.
8. The entire shoot was carried out in 48 days, which was 3 days over the scheduled 45 days. The delay was mostly due to the unseasonable rain in Rajasthan and freezing cold; which by the way, is why you will see Gul Panag wearing sweaters throughout the movie.
9. The movie was to be originally produced by RedIce films, but they were not available to provide for the minimal budget that Navdeep insisted on. So the script was then taken to Shemaaroo films, who agreed to make it. RedIce films have earlier produced movies like Yahaan, Samay and Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar (MP3).
10. Irfan Khan had agreed to do the project when RedIce were producing. But suddenly the producers decided to cut their budget in half. This is the time when Abhay came over to Navdeep and mentioned that Shemaroo wanted to make a movie with Abhay, but did not have a script or director in mind. He asked if Navdeep would like to do Manorama with them; and things fell in place.
11. ‘Uljhan’, ‘Bhoolbhulaiyan’, ‘Jal bin machhli’ were the titles the producers wanted to use. The script was originally just ‘Manorama’. The problem with that was: everyone thought of it was a women oriented subject and that’s a direct no-money deal in Bombay film circles. It was Abhay who suggested the ‘six feet under’ when he was not even attached to the project.

Verdict
Go with an open opinion and relaxed mind. Let the movie work it's magic over you in it's two and a half hour length. After all, as the popular tag-line of a brewed coffee went: Real pleasure does not come in an instant.