REVIEW: Manorama - Six Feet Under

Manorama - Six Feet Under starts on a promising note. Abhay Deol is Satyaveer Singh (SV), a PWD engineer. He likes to write in his spare time and dreams of becoming a famous writer of detective stories. But this dream of his has already been shattered once, as his one and only published novel Manorama gets a sad response (only 200 copies sold). Therefore, he accepts bribe in cash or kind to support his existence. So, Satyaveer gets back to leading a normal existence with his wife Nimmi (Gul Panag) and kid, with dreams of Yana Gupta.

On one such ordinary day (actually night) of SV's life, a middle-aged woman, Meenakshi Rathore (Sarika) stops by his house. She is the wife of a powerful minister PP Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and suspects her husband is having an affair with another woman. Meenakshi claims to be a fan of SV's novel Manorama, and wants him to spy on her husband. She offers Rs 20,000 for the job.

Seeing financial gain, SV agrees, and goes about trailing the minister. He hands over a roll of film to Meenakshi – pictures of Rathore talking to a woman who arrives late into the night. When SV is on his 'second honeymoon' with his wife, he discovers the woman posing as the politician's wife is not who she claims to be. And as it happens, Meenakshi dies under mysterious circumstances.

SV can't sleep and begins investigating her death on his own, even after being warned by his brother-in-law and police inspector, Brij Mohan (played perfectly by Vinay Pathak). SV finds out about Sheetal (Raima Sen), Meenakshi's roomie, and talks to her.

As he digs deeper, two goons threaten him, leaving him without his bike and with three broken fingers. When Nimmi's away for Diwali at Rohtak, SV gets a call from Sheetal saying that her life is in danger. Hesitatingly, he gives her shelter in his own house.

As they try to unfold the mystery together, sparks start flying. Sheetal happens to work in an orphanage of the minister Rathore. Taking advantage of this fact, SV tries to hang around at the place during a function. He spots the same young woman whom he had shot talking to the minister at night.