Film
7 Khoon Maaf
A darkly comic serial-killer thriller where a woman marries seven men, each meeting a mysterious end. Priyanka Chopra carries this audacious Vishal Bhardwaj film with wicked charm, playing a character oscillating between victim and predator. It's stylish, bloody, and unafraid to be morally ambiguous. For viewers who want Bollywood to get weird.
If you liked this
Chandni Bar2001
Madhuri Dixit in a role that shocked Indian cinema: a dancer trapped in exploitation and survival. Raw, unflinching, and led by a performance of devastating depth. A film that refuses to look away.
But Extremely dark and graphic in its depiction of violence and sexual coercion. It's deliberately punishing to watch, not cathartic.

Govinda Naam Mera2022
Vicky Kaushal in a thriller that plays with Bollywood convention: a man accused of murder, a wife with secrets, a narrative that keeps folding. Gleeful genre-play with real stakes underneath.
But The tone can feel scattered between comedy and crime drama. Some plot threads don't land cleanly.

Pink2016
Three women fight back against sexual harassment and victim-blaming in a Delhi courtroom. Amitabh Bachchan gives one of his best later-career performances. It's angry and necessary without preaching.
But Can feel didactic in places. The courtroom scenes occasionally sacrifice character depth for a message.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from 7 Khoon Maaf
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Rashomon1950
Both use shifting perspective and narrative manipulation to question who the victim really is. Both are structured around the same central mystery told multiple ways.
Kurosawa's masterpiece shows the same crime from four contradictory perspectives, each 'true.' If you want to understand how 7 Khoon Maaf plays with narrative unreliability and the impossibility of truth, this is the DNA. A 73-year-old answer to the same question.
But Formally experimental in ways that can feel austere now. Black and white, Japanese, deliberately distancing. Requires active engagement; it won't seduce you passively.

More like this (8)
Raees2017
Shah Rukh Khan as a trafficker navigating ambition and corruption in Gujarat. Visually sumptuous, morally complex, and genuinely tense. The cat-and-mouse with the cop (Gary Oldman) is superb.
But The romance subplot feels obligatory. Some viewers find the protagonist's charm glosses over his monstrousness.

Lipstick Under My Burkha2017
Four ordinary women in Bhopal pursuing desire, ambition, and sex—lives usually invisible in Hindi cinema. Intimate, funny, and radical in its ordinariness. A genuine small miracle.
But It's deliberately unglamorous and slow-burn. If you want plot momentum, you'll be frustrated. Also widely banned, so availability varies.

Natrang2010
A Marathi film about an obsessive theater actor consumed by a role. Meditative and haunting, with an ending that sticks. A meditation on ego, art, and the cost of ambition.
But Very slow and introspective. Non-Hindi cinema sometimes requires adjustment if you're used to Bollywood's pace. Subtitles required.

Badlapur2015
Varun Dhawan in a revenge thriller that's lean, cruel, and genuinely unsettling. The film asks whether vengeance is justice and finds no comfort in the answer.
But Aggressively bleak and nihilistic. Graphic violence used without sentiment. Not interested in making you feel good.

Uski Kahani1966
Vidya Balan as a pregnant woman searching for her missing husband through Kolkata's bureaucracy. Taut, clever, with one of Hindi cinema's best plot twists. A masterclass in misdirection.
But The thriller mechanics can feel slightly overpacked. Second viewing loses some of its power.

Piku2015
Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan in a film about aging, constipation, and love that manages to be tender and hilarious simultaneously. It's a character study disguised as a road movie.
But The plot is paper-thin. Entirely dependent on the performers' chemistry; if it doesn't click, there's not much holding it together. Also somewhat romanticizes dysfunction.

The Trouble with Angels1966
Both feature brilliant women who don't fit into the roles men have written for them. Both are darker than their surfaces suggest. Both make their female lead's hunger feel complicated rather than monstrous.
Rosalind Russell in a comedy about a woman running a convent full of chaos. Sounds twee; it's actually subversive about female authority, desire, and what women want when no one's watching. A buried gem of post-Code Hollywood.
But It's aggressively light and saccharine on the surface. Takes patience to see what's actually happening underneath. Dated feminism.

Andhadhun2018
Both build worlds where the observer might be complicit, where every character is unreliable, and where morality is a luxury nobody can afford. Both are about what happens when someone decides the rules don't apply to them.
A blind pianist becomes witness to a murder and lies his way deeper into danger. Indian thriller at its most playful and twisted, with a ending that redefines everything. Sriram Raghavan directing actors in perfect sync. Genuinely unpredictable.
But The tone shifts can feel jarring if you're not tracking the dark comedy underneath the plot. Some find the treatment of disability opportunistic rather than thoughtful.

People
Cast
Priyanka Chopra JonasSusanna Anna-Marie Johannes
Vivaan ShahArun Kumar
Konkona Sen SharmaNandini Kumar
Neil Nitin MukeshMajor Edwin Rodriques
Usha UthupMaggie Aunty (Maid)
Harish KhannaGhalib
Ayush TandonYoung Arun
John AbrahamJimmy Stetson / Jamshed Singh Rathod
Annu KapoorInspector Keemat Lal
Irrfan KhanWasiullah Khan
Aleksandr DyachenkoNicolai Vronsky
Ruskin BondMan at Bar
Directing
- Vishal BhardwajDirector
- Manjari MakijanySecond Second Assistant Director
Writing
- GulzarLyricist
- Ruskin BondNovel
- Matthew RobbinsScreenplay
- Vishal BhardwajScreenplay
Production
- Deven KhoteCo-Producer
- Rekha BhardwajCo-Producer
- Siddharth Roy KapurCo-Producer
- Zarina ScrewvalaCo-Producer
- Ronnie ScrewvalaProducer
- Vishal BhardwajProducer