Bollywood is changing fast, especially its filmmakers who have, of late, realized that the making of a movie is much more than basing them on good boy-meets-good-girl stories. These new trends started last year with a movie like 'Being Cyrus'. This movie tried to peep into the dark recesses of the human psyche. 'Manorama Six Feet Under' and 'Johnny Gaddar', two stylish noir films, during this year, also depicted the lean, mean side of humankind. And, 'Strangers' is indeed a strange elegy on love that smoothly slips into deceit and murder. 'Strangers' is a thriller, though sassy, set in London with just four key players.
The movie is about two strangers, who share their life-stories while traveling together on a train in England. Sanjiv Rai (Kay Kay Menon) is a businessman and a frustrated husband feeling tethered to a depressed wife (Sonali Kulkarni) who keeps ruminating over the death of their only son. Rahul (Jimmy Shergill) is a failed writer whose marriage with his gorgeous wife (Nandana Sen) is on the rocks over the issue of having a baby. Both the men are harried and tired of their wives and want to get rid of them. That is when one of them tosses an idea: they should kill each other's wives. In this way the finger of suspicion would not point at them.
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After directing so many television serials, Aanand's experiment over the full-length movie seems a successful step. Aanand scores full marks for his tight direction. Ananad proves his tight grip over the audiences and he makes the audience to sit and watch the movie till the end. The script is so binding that no one can leave the theater before the last scene.
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Kak Kay Menon again proves himself a dependable actor with his performance. Jimmy Shergil may get some good offers now as in 'Strangers' will see a totally new and matured Jimmy. On the other side, female characters too need a round of applause. Though there is not so much to be done for the female characters, except the beauty doll, yet Sonali impresses the audiences with her small but impressive role. Nandana Sen is good; not so much acting is required for her character, though.
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It will be hard for 'Strangers' to attract audience even after all the good ingredients except good publicity. 'Strangers' lost the lucky chance of a single release towards the year-end. Aanand has done a marvelous job as director in comparison with the Hollwood flick but due to lack of promotion all his hard work seems to have gone waste.
Any way, 'Strangers' is still stranger for movie lovers.
