Vivaan Shah: 7 Khoon Maaf is a punk-rock feminist film

As 7 Khoon Maaf completes 15 years on February 18, actor Vivaan Shah, who made his debut with 7 Khoon Maaf, looks back at the film that shaped his understanding of cinema and confirmed his decision to become an actor.

With the distance of time, Vivaan places the film within a wider literary and cinematic tradition. He says, “I see 7 Khoon Maaf as part of a kind of Gothic trilogy by Vishal ji, which includes Maqbool and Haider. All three films contain elements of the Gothic and the macabre in the architecture, the aesthetics, and the emotional landscapes of the stories.”

He says, “Even Omkara and Kaminey carry shades of rural and urban Gothic respectively. 7 Khoon Maaf, Maqbool and Haider also hint at earlier classical literary influences such as Dante and Marlowe, who must have influenced Shakespeare himself. There is even a touch of Indian Gothic of the kind associated with Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto.”

Joining director Vishal Bhardwaj’s set at 19 proved to be a turning point. He says, “Working with Vishal ji was a dream come true. I had been a fan of his from a very early age. I never wanted to be a professional actor, but when this opportunity came my way, I plunged into it even before I had made up my mind.”

The experience led to an epiphany. He says, “On the sets of 7 Khoon Maaf, I decided that I was going to dedicate myself full-time to this profession. I learned an extraordinary amount, including language, speech, diction, tone, cinematic vocabulary, and the art of acting itself. Working with Vishal ji was like a masterclass, almost like film school. He is our Stanley Kubrick. The more you watch his films, the more you learn.”

The film demanded that Vivaan portray the passage of time, a challenge that went beyond prosthetics. He says, “We had an extraordinary prosthetics team from America, which helped immensely, but it was still a challenge from an acting standpoint. Watching Priyanka Chopra do this was one of the most illuminating experiences of my life.”

He says, “I have immense gratitude towards Priyanka for how kind, patient, and helpful she was. I was young, lost, and a novice, but she guided me through an extraordinarily complex character and story. She is one of the greatest actresses and human beings I know.”




Reflecting on her performance, he says, “She gave one of the most mind-blowing performances ever. It was almost like a Sunset Boulevard, Greta Garbo kind of performance. She has the grandeur of cinema icons like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.”

Fifteen years on, Vivaan believes the film’s politics remain relevant. He says, “Great works of art remain immutable with time. 7 Khoon Maaf is extraordinarily progressive and forward-thinking. It is a punk-rock feminist film.”



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