The Stoneman Murders

Two genres in which Hindi Film Industry has not got many in its kitty are Spine Chilling Thrillers and Murder Mysteries…. There are very few such brave and worth mentioning efforts which come to your mind instantly. Luckily we have seen some good thrillers in the recent times by the young brigade of innovative directors and "The Stoneman Murders" is yet another path breaking and engrossing attempt by the director, Manish Gupta.

The movie is a mix of real life take on the serial killings of 1983 with a touch of fiction added by the writers giving it a more sensational feel. It talks about the horrifying terror on the streets, spread by a brutal killer who used to kill the poor people sleeping on the roadside by crushing their head with a stone, therefore named as Stoneman Murderer. And both the director and the writers come up with a brilliant portrayal of this real life case on the silver screen.

The main merit of the movie is that it straight away starts off with the main topic and sticks to its till the end. There are no deliberately added sub plots, songs or any comic scenes which make it more harsh, bold and impressive. The whole narration revolves around Kay Kay Menon, who is a suspended Police Inspector paying the price for his anger practiced in an interrogation. After his suspension, he is still investigating the Stoneman Case, privately on the instructions of his senior, Vikram Gokhale and also gets assistance by a Hawaldaar played by Virendra Saxena. His colleague inspector, Arbaaz Khan, who is more of an opponent, is also working on the same case creating troubles for KK.

What makes the movie, a path-breaking attempt is the dark & shocking secret behind all the murders committed by the Stoneman. It also shows the ugly side of our rotten system we are all living in. As the search progresses, KK manages to solve the case, but his superiors don't let the secret come out in the open for some good reasons of their own. So the case which was duly solved by him, still remains as an unsolved murder mystery in the police records due to its disgraceful truth. I will not like to disclose the mystery here for my friends as that is main highlight of the movie, but i would surely like to add that the twist has a great shock element in store for the viewers.

One more interesting observation is that despite the fact that the movie is based on some brutal and cruel murders committed by a psychopath; still it does not have any bloody or weird visuals. The director very impressively gives you a clean and sober picture without moving into some trance or blood-shed. Instead he chooses to show the real news paper pictures to show the murders committed by the killer on the roadsides. Among the well shot sequences, capable of making you jump on the edge of your seat is the sub-way sequence, when KK has a scuffle with the killer but he manages to escape, injuring KK badly. The interval sequence also leaves you awestruck, with your jaws open, asking for more.

Performance wise, KK as expected delivers another gem of his career. The complete movie moves more around him and he manages to carry it all with elegance and conviction. Vikram Gokhale is impressive once again and perfectly suits the role. Arbaaz has got few scenes and he does a fine job. Rukhsaar as KK's wife though doesn't get a well defined role, but still gives a sober and sweet performance. Virendra Saxena as KK's associate Hawaldaar is one of the most under-rated character artists we have. I still remember his haunting presentation of a Sikh Freedom Fighter in the Tele-Serial "Tamas" and since then have seen him giving many memorable performances in several movies consistently.

In a murder mystery or a thriller, background music has a very important role to play and this department is handled well by the music director giving ample support to the subject and feel. The movie is majorly shot at nights and still you are not taken into dark visuals and dim lightning. So the Cinematography is perfect keeping the scenes bright with proper lighting and effects.

In all, if you are fan of thrillers and murder mysteries, then this is a treat to watch after the recent "A Wednesday". It was indeed a pity that I watched the movie in an almost empty theater. Attempts like these need to be applauded and encouraged by the viewers. But sadly, the Indian movie lovers still go to the theater looking at the faces on the poster and not due to the subject or theme of the movie. I would also like to thank and congratulate Mr. Bobby Bedi (Kaleidoscope), for backing up such projects in these tough recession times.

So, here is another surprising small movie, simply not to be missed.

The Stoneman Murders is a neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Manish Gupta. The film stars Kay Kay Menon, Arbaaz Khan, Late Vikram Gokhale, Rukhsaar Rehman and Virendra Saxena.

Mumbai of 1980s is terrorised by a serial killer who ruthlessly kills pavement dwellers in their sleep. A suspended police officer then decides to step in and conduct an investigation on his own.

When you are directing a murder mystery you should be careful that the viewers shouldn't get any hint to guess the killer and the director successfully achieves in this (although the director gives some very subtle hints about the killer and reason of the murders), the motive of the murder should get cleared only in the end and the director gets success in this also and the murder mystery should make the viewers hooked and the director also gets success in this but some loogical loopholes and some missing dots makes the film little disappointing.

The plot of the film is taken from the murder spree of 1980s in Mumbai (Then Bombay) which was never resolved but in the film the director with the help of cinematic liberty gave the motive behind the murders and also the name of the killer.

The execution of the film is good and most of the time the film will keep you hooked. The acting in the film was good to average with Kay Kay Menon, Vikram Gokhle and Virender Saxena was impressive. Arbaaz Khan was average and Rukhsaar Rehman was disappointing.

Screenplay of the film was gripping and will keep you hooked to know who is the murderer and what is the motive behind the murders. Climax of the film was little disappointing and could've been more crisped.

Overall a good thriller film and should watch once.

For me movies are all about art, acting & the quality of story. In earlier times there were plays, adaptions of epics on stage, adaptions of succcessful novels also which were all so artistic to watch live. With time & slowly stage plays giving way to movie halls then multiplexes & now even our drawing rooms. The essence of the stage where acting, art & story are still intact. Everybody be it the rich or poor, young or the old wants to spend time watching something good for his / her time. The very fact somebody wants to spend time & money on something it has to be worthy of the art. This is where Stoneman murders scores high, the movie has all the ingredients of a good urban mystrey thriller, it is not slow paced, it moves quickly & mostly shot in the dark streets of Bombay. The movie really transports you to the 1980s, I was in Bombay at that time so I could really feel the real portrayal of the city. Acting of all actors were good, none outclassing the other. Manish Gupta the director has few good movies to his credit, I watched this & Rahasya in both the movies I could see he has a very good editing ability. In many thrillers I have noticed the editing or story gives way & the movie looks a bit flat on the plot. Some of the things look unrealistic but in this everything looks real. It is time we value actors not stars like in stage shows where people used to value the actors. Stars are celebrities they hardly know how to portray realistically on screen.

Stoneman murders is a must watch movie, hope I find few more thrillers like this to watch on free time.

Excellent Movie. Everybody acted very well in the movie. Songs and BGM in the movie were not so good. The movie was so interesting and thrilling. Not even a single scene was boring. The movie was not so lengthy and lagging which was a main highlight of the movie. There were no unwanted scenes and the movie concentrated more on thrilling and investigating scenes that made the movie more interesting and thrilling. The movie was not boring at all. The lead actors rocked the movie by their performance. One of the best thriller movies. Excellent Movie.

The goods- Story, cinematography, pace, length, Climax, ending scene, Key Key Menon's performance .

The bads- Songs, Background score, could have been made a bit darker, and Arbaz khan and Menon's wife's perfomance (unbearably bad) .

. I had read somewhere about the stoneman Killings, and came to know about this movie today in 2021. I loved the way the writers created a fiction from a real story. They could have removed the songs, chose some better actors and made the movie a bit more dark.. Then I would have gave it 9 star...