When Anil Kapoor turns his wife's 'murderer'

Mumbai, Aug 19 (IANS) Are Indian film audiences ready for a hero who kills his screen wife, albeit accidentally?

In his latest production, Ram Gopal Varma has cast Anil Kapoor as a man who accidentally bumps off his wife.

Varma had actually planned "My Wife's Murder" as a two-film release with two separate endings with Anil killing his wife accidentally in one and deliberately in the other!

"Earlier we had another version of the same story where Anil actually and deliberately kills his nagging wife Suchitra Krishnamurthy. I planned to release 'My Wife's Murder' as a two-film release called 'Galti Se' and 'Jaan Boojh Kar', giving the audiences two separate endings to go home with," Varma told IANS.

But protests from women's organisations in Hyderabad and other southern cities put an end to the plan.

"I guess at the end of the day, no matter how radical and unconventional I may pretend to be, I want to make films for an audience, and I can't go against what they want...and mind."

Would Anil as a spouse killer on the run work at the box office? There have been many instances of protagonists as killers, but to snuff out an annoying spouse - played by Shekhar Kapur's wife Suchitra who once upon a time played the leading lady opposite Ronit Roy in "Jazbaat" and Shah Rukh Khan in "Kabhi Han Kabhi Na" - wouldn't be the ideal monsoon entertainer.

Realising this, Varma Productions is giving the film a low-key release. Sandwiched as it is between two Varma biggies - "Sarkar" and "James" - "My Wife's Murder" could be that modest in-between production that his assistants and protégées specialise in.

"You'll be surprised. Everyone who has seen 'My Wife's Murder' feels it's at par with the films I personally direct. Why do you presume that the products done by my assistants are space-fillers in my company? 'My Wife's Murder' will prove the dissenters wrong. (Director) Jijy Philip has done an amazing job."

But will the moralists approve of a film that puts a cutting cleft into Hindi cinema's relations with marital issues?

"Cinema has always been tolerant of domestic discord. We all fight with our wives, but we don't murder them," says a middle-aged actor who has been in Varma's cinema earlier.

Will "My Wife's Murder" kick off a fuss among moralists?

Chuckles Varma: "I'm no stranger to controversy. My 'Bhoot' caused palpitations among ghost-busters. 'D', they said, brought on a Dubai gangster's threatening call to me and 'Sarkar' was supposed to be the life of (Shiv Sena supreme) Bal Thackeray.

"But 'My Wife's Murder' is my only film that crystallises a very true yet unspecified social issue. What happens when spousal stress crosses all limits?"

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My Wife's Murder