Strangers Movie Review

Inspiration from a Hollywood classic apart, director Anand Rai’s film ‘Strangers’ is a fairly engrossing thriller with a riveting denouement. Rai makes excellent use of Black & White at interesting moments during the narration which lends a touch of Hollywood to the film. The script is a winner so is the direction, production values, editing and the performances of all four actors - Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni, Jimmy Sheirgill and Nandana Sen.

Rahul bedi [Jimmy Shergill] is a failed writer, who is taunted every minute by his wife for his failure . He is very much vexed with his wife but is in a helpless position. Sanjeev Rai [Kay Kay] who is a management guy professionally, has lost his son and so his wife is emotionally disturbed and in a distressed mood all the time.

Incidentally these two males meet on a train in London’s tube and they listen to each others problems and come to the conclusion that there are not happy due to their wives. Then they think to kill their wives and then again rethink of swapping each other’s wife.

Kudos to Rai for engrossing the viewer with simple, stylish narration. Slowly, he unravels the mystery, layer by layer, taking the viewer by surprise. He makes excellent use of flashback to keep the viewer guessing. STRANGERS is an excellent narration of love, marriage, deceit, betrayal and murder. Rai is supported by Sanjay Sankla who makes deft use of the scissors to give the film that thrilling edge with his slick editing. Flawless. Manoj Gupta with his super cinematography captures the mood of the moment as well as the beauty of London which gives the movie the complete look.

‘Strangers’ is one of those less-publicized films that catch you by surprise. In all likelihood, box-office will find few takers for this film. But if you are a lover of thrillers, you will enjoy the time and money spent on ‘Strangers’. Just don’t go expecting the moon.