Indian serial killers have always got a raw deal in terms of publicity (the recent excitement about Moninder and Surinder - two characters in search of a Sardarji joke notwithstanding). And that's not entirely a bad thing. America for instance loves its murderous nutjobs, makes heroes out of them and everyone from Ed Gein, to Gacy to the Zodiac have lavishly mounted biopics.

In India on the other hand, any attempts at serial killer flicks grounded in reality invariably get cockblocked. There was a rumour sometime in the mid-90s about a series made on the entire pantheon of Indian killers (starring Raghuvir Yadav as Raman Raghav) that was actually not allowed to be screened on account of it being too violent and disturbing; a film on the Pandher murders, starring the super-sleazy Raza Murad as the man himself is in deep freeze. All things considered, it's vaguely surprising that Bombay's dimly recalled Stoneman Murders were considered a worthy subject for a film, a full 16 years after the event.

But for all that, this is one terrific film that grabs you and doesn't really let go. Kay Kay Menon plays Sanjay Shelar, a cop who is suspended for a custodial death. Around the same time, a serial killer called Pathar Maar begins to terrorise Mumbai's pavement dwellers. Shelar is convinced there's an occult angle to the killing - not a particularly impressive work of deduction considering the corpses are smeared with kumkum - and requests his superior to be allowed a chance to redeem himself by cracking the case. The focus throughout TSM remains firmly on Shelar's attempts at cracking the case assisted by a sympathetic constable, Kamble (Virendra Saxena) who smuggles out information from the actual police investigation to help him. No more spoilers. Go out and watch this.

The film is reasonably effective in its evocation of 1980s Bombay, except while the murders happened in the Sion-Matunga stretch, it seems to be shot primarily in and around the VT-Fort area. Also it's got perhaps one twist too many thrown in towards the end and makes a couple of unreasonable demands on the credibility of the viewer. Not a big deal though. Unlike something like Slumdog Millionaire, where the lapses pull you out of the film entirely and you find yourself going "Hey what the fuck is this shit! Did no one do ANY research here?" every couple of minutes. Kay Kay does this dour badass role very well - and its good to see him bring a lot of commitment to a character he could've played half-asleep. Very satisfying overall.