7 Saal Baad (1987)

S.U. Saiyed had been my favorite from the time I watched 'Bhayanak'. 'Bhayanak' was something which ruled and affected my senses for many years. I might have been a victim of blind faith when I ordered 7 Saal Baad's VCD just because I found that it was directed by S.U. Saiyed.

First of all I would like to curse the director for sacrificing his indigenous creativity for making something trendy but insensible. Here is 7 Saal Baad in a nutshell.

Few students are on a campfire, when two of them (a girl and a boy) feel like being watched upon. They sneak out to a room and make love. When they are finished an unseen stalker cuts them open with a sharp knife.

Several years later we see a happily married couple Dilip Mathur (Navin Nischal) and Nisha Mathur (Sharmila Tagore). Nisha has persuaded her husband to build a hotel at a scenic mountainous location. Dilip doesn't have much expectations from this hotel but somehow succumbs to his wife's wish. Now many unlikely guests arrive. The film wastes a lot of time in building characters. The characters are either shown making love or dancing uselessly. Most of the story is about 'bed' and our characters are bed bugs. Now we have piles of old and ranting farts like Huma Khan, Mayur, Javed Jaffery, Roma Manik and Farah to name a few. What do they all do? They do nothing just sing songs, get high, and make love.

The only good thing about this movie is Deepak Khanna (Suresh Oberoi). His powerful performance brings some life to the movie but alas his role is not as we would expect it to be. Deepak was Nisha's ex and was jailed for 7 years for a murder. He murdered a man who was trying to manhandle Nisha. However, Nisha couldn't wait for Deepak and got married to Dilip.

Then a prowler comes to action and goes on a killing spree murdering all the guests. The worst thing is that the death sequences are very quick. Go to the restroom and you'll surely lose all the murders. When these characters had to be killed so plainly and quickly then why does the movie take so long to build up the characters? Now there is Lisa (Prema Narayan), who is on her way to the hotel for no particular reason.

Overall the movie sucks big time. S.U. Saiyed remains the bad workman who quarrels with his tools. This is one of the most horrible and insufferable movies I have ever seen.