Here is a movie not often made in this part of the world. However, the West produces such films based on their own investigation. But, Neeraj Pandey did try this in his 'A Wednesday'. Fortunately, this Friday has three movies releasing and all of them fall in different categories. While 'Jugaad' is a funny movie based on a real life incident, Shah Rukh starrer 'Billu' is woven around a historical saga of long standing friendship. This is the third one that is made on the Western pattern and somewhat different from the usual ones.
Manish Gupta, both as writer and director, tries his hand through his 'The Stoneman Murders', on a true-to-life story of a serial killer. This isn't a new subject though as we in India have been reading a lot in newspapers for the last three decades about such killers. The serial killings that hit headlines in 1983 are depicted with realism though Manish Gupta tries to distance himself from the gory scenes of violence etc as far as possible.
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The serial killer dubbed as 'Stoneman' has just claimed his fifth victim. Sanjay played by Kay Kay Menon is a suspended inspector. He decides to investigate the case. Sanjay hopes to track this killer down and thus possibly find an entry back into the police force! Satam played by Vikram Gokhale comes to his aid. While Sanjay takes up the hard way of tracking this killer down, the official investigator Inspector Kedar played by Arbaaz Khan always clashes him with Sanjay. However, both of them pursue the case seriously. The movie depicts an incident of a hapless man bludgeoned to death in his sleep by a stone and has sindoor splattered all around him. So, Kay Kay is suspended from the force.
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Anyway, the 'Stoneman' stalks the streets unabated, claiming victim after victim. Although the serial killings were witnessed in India almost thirty years ago, the story still holds good. But the film has its weaknesses too. Several sequences like the one in the hospital when the police nab the 'Stoneman' and chase him on the railway platform and the others between the husband Kay Kay and wife Rukhsaar.
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Acting-wise, Manish Gupta succeeds as writer and also as director. Kay Kay gives yet another excellent performance. Arbaaz and Vikram Gokhale are okay. Virendra Saxena's acting as a beat constable is commendable too. Rukhsaar has been natural all through. The music as well as the cinematography is good. The shooting is perfect as it was done during the nights.
