7 Khoon Maaf

Yet another one of those movies that I took sinfully long to watch, however I am proud to have watched it in that time of my life where I can empathize with the story.

Susanna Johannes seems like your usual rich lady whose parents died too soon which made her housekeepers her only family. She is obviously proud of her heritage which includes her good looks, property, values and everything in between. Her family now consisted of Maggie (maid), Galib Khan (butler), Goonga (stableboy) and Goonga’s nephew Arun who not only has a secret crush on Susanna but is also the narrator of the story. Arun was technically raised by her as she funded for his education which later on led to him becoming a forensic specialist.

Falling in love and marrying 6 times in life, Susanna lived the fearless way. Starting from Major Edwin whose love was stable but jealous and psychotic, to Jimmy Stetson whose love was musical and passionate but he ended up feeling crazier about drugs than his Susie; to Wasiullah Khan who was a gentle lover but his lust was powered by aggression and his kinks for hurting Sultana; to Nikolai who was the simplest love Susanna had yet the Russian spy he managed to wreck it and broke Anna's heart by cheating on her; to Keemat Lal, the local cop who always had a thing for Susanna and whose sexual tension would be off the roof whenever he was with her; to lastly, Modhusudan, who saved her life but still managed to betray her by trying to steal her money; all of them were murdered.

When I think of Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes, I think of the phrase

It’s better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.

She loved like a giver and she did it solely for love. She didn't question converting her religion because for all she cared, love was the only religion worth following. Susanna became Susie, Sultana, Anna because she wanted to give it all. She is the representation of all those thoughts in my head that keep me hopeful when it comes to love.

When in the end Arun asks her, why did she have to kill them all? Why couldn’t she just let them go? She says she did it for her heart. She did it for love. Which if you ask me is totally fair because that is exactly the kind of punishment one she would be subjected to if they break a heart. Galib Khan explains somewhere in the middle of the movie that Susanna always gets her way no matter how difficult.

In the end however she does fall into a pit of gloom. She tries to commit suicide but she is saved by another man, Modhusudan, who again betrays her for her money so she had to kill him yet again. It almost became a pattern, an underlying psychopathy.

I want to say the last murder that she committed, she was not proud of it but what else could be done? Some say she could have left them, divorced them, forgiven them. She did forgive them in a way by taking their ungrateful lives from their own hands. What good are you to this world if you still intentionally hurt the ones you love?

In a way, Sultana saved the world from a violent lover like Wasiullah Khan, Anna saved the world from a liar and Susanna saved the world from a cheater, jealousy and even herself when she became a nun, accepting the ways of the lord and knowing that this is finally the path where there is no pain or suffering, because there are no desires. This is where Wasiullah Khan comes to my mind from the part where he recited,

Ek baar toh yun hoga , thoda sa sukoon hoga; na dil mein kasak hogi, na sar pe junoon hoga

Susanna loved with all her heart and always lost. Yet she did not stop looking and even when she did, they came right at her doorstep. She admitted in the end that just maybe, all the wrong men were destined to be hers. But she never regretted anything. Even when she said,

I felt like I lost all my self esteem

She said so because she tried to burn herself down with the house and not because she took all those lives. They were her loved ones in fact. The seventh murder was of her own self- of a young and proud Susanna and sister Anna came to life after confessing all her sins. You either forgive or forget when it comes to love and she forgave.

So here it is.

Susanna, this one’s for you. For the inspiration you have given me. To expect to be hurt in love, but never afraid. To keep going and never change your ways. Everything indeed, is fair in love and war.

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