Susanna..
She will be always remembered by the world as a femme fatale, who murdered her husbands like a black widow spider. Her charm, her enigma, her sensuosness and her incessant quest for love. One way of decoding the seven sins could be:
Major Roderiques- Envy
Jimmy- Lazy
Waziullah- Wrath
Nikolai Vronsky- Gluttony
Keemat lal- Lust
Dr.Tarafdar- Greed
Susanna- Pride.
With pride, indulgence in each of the above sins could have been her real sins. Yet, like life those sins are so intricately woven into her goodness that they are inseparable. Perhaps, the murders could have been a form of possessiveness, another kind of love. Even in death, she ensured that her husbands never suffered. By drinking the blood of Jesus Christ ( the holy communion perhaps) she is redeeming her sins. Susanna dies and Sister Anna is born.
Like in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the mansion has a lot of Psychoanalytic elements in it. With race horses and snakes in a well, the subtle sexual charm is evident. It is a sphere were eros meets thanatos, where there is little distinction between love and death.
The death of Maggi aunty and Galib Khan is infact the demise of Susanna. Yet, Goonga still lives. The 3 servants, mirrors a trinity,though a dark one. One of them takes care of everything, one of them was sacrificed for Susanna’s sins and the other, though mute, broods over everything. Perhaps as Jung quoted in the “Answer to Job”, Susanna represents the fourth dimension to the trinity, the powerful feminine energy.
With a stellar cast and excellent performances, with a splendid script co-written by Vishal Bharadwaj and Ruskin Bond, this was one of the best films in 2011. However, this is surely one of the most underrated films in the Hindi film industry, as evident from the lukewarm reception it recieved, despite positive reviews. If you haven’t watched it yet, don’t miss it.
Review: 7 Khoon Maaf
