The Stoneman Murders Dvd

The Stoneman Murders is a 2009 Indian neo-noir crime thriller film based on the real life Stoneman serial killings that made headlines in the early 1980s in Bombay. The helpless victims of the mystery killer, who was never caught, were footpath dwellers in Bombay. They were stoned to death in their sleep. The movie weaves fiction around reality in an attempt to provide answers to the questions around the case. The Stoneman Murders was director Manish Gupta’s first full-length feature film.

Plot

The serial killer dubbed ‘Stoneman’ by the media has just claimed his fifth victim and the case is still of little interest to the Bombay police. But to suspended sub-inspector Sanjay Shelar (Kay Kay Menon) (for custodial death of a gangster) this killer poses an opportunity for reinstation. With the secret aid of his patronizing superior AIG Satam (Vikram Gokhale), Sanjay takes up the arduous process of tracking the murderer without any legal assistance. He asks help from an aide constable and friend Kamble (Virendra Saxena) whose wife has apparently run away. The official investigator of the case, Inspector Kedar Phadke (Arbaaz Khan), clashes incessantly with Sanjay. They, separately, dwelve deeper into the case, patrolling the city on their own. Sanjay takes the help of his informer Ghanshu (Ashraful Haque) who tells him about Mohammed, a cab driver operating only at midnight, whom everyone on the streets is starting to suspect as being the stoneman. Ghanshu is eventually also murdered on the footpath by the Stoneman. The Stoneman is shown to be killing people sleeping on the streets (beggars, workers, sweepers etc.). Another night the Stoneman tries to kill a beggar sleeping on the roadside but is saved by Kedar and some patrolling policemen. Kedar sees Sanjay and now starts to suspect him as the murderer. Sanjay finds that his private investigation room has been visited by the Stoneman as he sees vermilion smeared everywhere in the room. He also learns that Mohammed has run away from the city.

Sanjay contemplates possible danger to his wife Manali (Rukhsar Rehman) and asks her to leave for her village. At the railway station he encounters the Stoneman again, trying to kill another roadside man. Before he can catch him, Kedar with his team arrives and shoots Sanjay in the thigh, thinking him to be the killer. Sanjay escapes and the incident brings him closer to his wife who nurses his wounds. A search is out in the city for Sanjay now, who goes into hiding. He researches and realizes the killer himself is a policeman, from a tribe, performing tantric rituals to cure impotency that calls for human sacrifices. He asks his trusted cop Kamble to tell this to AIG Satam, giving his research documents as evidence. In the climax, it is shown that Mohammed was only an ex convict deployed by Kedar as a decoy to roam the streets at the latter’s orders, and Kamble turns out to be the killer Stoneman when Sanjay arranges to meet him. Kamble attacks Sanjay with a stone about to commit his ninth and last murder, but both are saved by the police (Kedar and team). In a trap laid by the police in the hospital, when Kamble sneaks in to kill Sanjay, he is nabbed and the matter is closed. Satam and Phadke decide to hush up the case. Kamble is shot and buried in the jungle by Sanjay at Satam’s orders. He tells Sanjay that he cannot be taken back into the police force.

In the end, a tantric is shown in Kamble’s village performing a ritual, asking a man to make nine human sacrifices and this time to kill people in Calcutta. The story ends showing killings in Bombay and Calcutta in 1983 and 1987. As the credits roll, elderly Sanjay is shown in the present day settled with his wife and daughter in a village, reading a book of unsolved mysteries, with his own experience mentioned.

Cast

Kay Kay Menon as Sanjay Shellar: a hot-headed suspended police sub-inspector unofficially investigates the case in the hope of getting back into the police force.
Arbaaz Khan as Inspector Kedar Phadke: the official investigator who is more interested in winning against Sanjay than in his assignment of tracking down the killer.
Vikram Gokhale as AIG Satam: Sanjay’s senior who comes to his aid by unofficially letting Sanjay continue his investigation and to save his job.
Rukhsaar Rehman as Manali Shellar
Virendra Saxena as Kamble
Ashraful Haque as Ghanshu
Rajesh Balwani as Police psychiatrist
Annu Shah as a slum landlord
Rashid as pimp
Vishwajeet Soni as eunuch
Ashok Raj as a cook
Ali Shah as Mohammad Reza
Changazi Khan as beggar in subway
Vikram Sahoo as Commissioner
Jayshankar Tripathi as AIG’s constable
Veebha Anand as Sanjay’s daughter
Yogita Dandaykar as bar singer
Satish Kumar as man at the PCO
Priya Ahuja as Rukhsana
Dhanu Mangela as bar bouncer
Suleman Sheikh as bar-tender
Pushpender Sain as pavement dweller boy
Sameer Khan as a beggar boy
Manju Chauhan as a beggar girl
Jagdish Sen as a villager
Rachana Maurya as the lead dancer in the bar (item number)