The title of Rajat Kapoor’s latest directorial venture, Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa, exhibits the kind of response everyone would give upon discovering a murdered corpse. All the flaws, faults, simmering tension, etc., are cast aside because, well…admission of violence or any negative emotion is taken as a confession. Or rather, it is seen as one by the investigating authorities as they need to get back to their other tasks. Sleep was the task that Saurabh Shukla’s character of Afzal Qureshi wished for. To be fair, he was not alone in the lack of sleep department.
Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa opens with one character waking up and discovering the titular character’s murder. This discovery and the subsequent scream rouse everyone from their slumber. I like how director Rajat Kapoor established the attendance (and potential killer/s) within the farmhouse with that simple opening credit montage. It sets in motion a series of events to discover the truth of who did it while the rest, barring the guilty party, slept peacefully.
The whodunit is ever present in cinema and literature. Agatha Christie owned the genre with her stories, checking the following boxes, comprising a large group set in a single location, and one among the group is the killer. At times, due to the Dame’s prowess in murder mysteries, any film on similar lines may be likened to her work. Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa checks all the boxes and may be considered an Agatha Christie-inspired work. Knives Out films were in the same category. Akin to a line from the book Murder On The Orient Express, this Hindi film can have the sentence ‘the murderer is with us, in the house, now…’
The Agatha Christie novels and Knives Out were quite complex. If you say they weren’t, then Rajat Kapoor’s film is quite simple. Simple is effective in the murder mystery, as the genre allows for the screenplay to have something so small and so mundane to serve as a clue. In case your mind wanders, Rajat Kapoor’s character of Chandra shares his observation about semantics. It is here that audiences realize that they may have been looking for something well hidden but failed to spot something presented quite simply.
This is quite general, but if one examines their conversations, a simple usage of singular, plural, or even first and third person can signify so many underlying things. Apart from that, pay closer attention and scrutinize every frame, listen to every word, and microanalyse everything with a magnifying glass. Of course, relying on memory to look back at moments you missed may distract you from what’s happening on screen.
Vinay Pathak’s character of Sohrab Handa is the one that stands out. He is that typical individual that everyone is compelled to hate. Given his playful intention behind the scorn-filled words, it becomes pretty clear that he gets a high from getting a rise out of his companions. He does do some despicable things that veer into bullying territory. However, through the narration, it is established that all smiles are just a show with ulterior motives existing beneath the facade. Of course, that is not what Raman and Jayanti had in mind when they invited a motley of individuals to their anniversary celebration.
With such an ensemble cast, it’s tough for more than one character to make a mark. While Pathak’s character of Handa particularly garners our attention, Rajat Kapoor allows the audience to have a reason to remember way more characters. Some are red herrings, and there are many among the smokescreens laid out. But there is enough to lend a solid motive to multiple parties. The audience’s attention will be piqued at moments when editor Suresh Pai permits diegetic sound rather than an orchestrated score. This choice to not use non-diegetic sound at such moments works well. So simple. So effective.
Also, Read: Maestro ‘MAMI Film Festival’ Review
Every character will be assigned unequal levels of suspicion, but the audience will be unanimous about one thing. The title’s second word could have been within single inverted quotations.
The opening half of Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa (yes, it had a built-in intermission at a festival) does well in building a motive among many characters. In going for simplicity, Kapoor may have just erred and disappointed those looking for some added stakes. This could result in the second half feeling relatively flat once cinephiles understand that the film is meandering to a close in a standard path. A solace from here is that the ending is unique, but will it be enough to appeal to whodunit aficionados? Time will tell.
Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa had its Premiere at the JIO MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023.
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