Kaun..? (1999)

CAST:
Urmila Matondkar
Manoj Bajpee
Sushant Singh

ANALYSIS:

'KAUN' is a Bollywood flick and a unique Bollywood flick which belongs to the 'Whodunit' genre and the other interesting point is that it has only 3 principal characters. Other than a group of people who make a brief appearance for 10 seconds and an unknown dead body, it's just about three people inside a house.Well, given that the third character enters the house after more than half of the movie is finished it's basically two characters in the movie, a Paranoid young woman and a Psychotic visitor.'KAUN' is movie which shows what happens inside a house far from human habitation on a stormy day when a lost Psychotic looking stranger tries to intrude into the home of a paranoid young woman who is home alone,and a guy calling himself as a cop enters the house after a while.

After reading through the strange looking synopsis of the movie and observing Urmila and Manoj Bajpai in the casting it is obvious that this movie is directed by Mr.Creative Genius Ram Gopal Varma a.k.a. RGV.Though he does not do films like this anymore 'KAUN' is an absolutely brilliant experiment(considering Bollywood) which works for most of the part.Written by Anurag Kashyap (claimed as the best 'cult' director of Bollywood now) this movie has every reason to make one curious before watching it and your curiosity won't be wasted. Sandeep Chowta provides the perfect sound effects and so does Mazhar Kamran with his camera work. The huge house,the dark attic, fishpond ,stormy climate,a little cat and the constant audio from the Television warning about a Serial killer on loose play their own subtle characters intensifying the climate inside the house.

Coming to the performances Urmila is at her natural best with the sexy curves and brilliant acting skills as usual. She perfectly fits into the role of ''Madam'' a confused and paranoid young woman. Manoj Bajpai is the standout performer in the movie.He displays everything from feared to death to rib-tickling humor and suits the Psychotic strangers's role without a doubt. Sushant Singh doesn't have a long character but does his best in what he gets.

Overall it is very hard to review a movie which is an experiment more than an ambitious project and 'KAUN' is one of those rare experimental movies of Hindi cinema.It's a suspense thriller with subtle humor and strong casting,technical aspects. It has it's flaws but is undoubtedly an entertaining and an enjoyable flick.Look out for inspirations drawn from Tarantino!!!