“Murder Mubarak,” Homi Adajania’s adaptation of Anuja Chauhan’s novel “Club You to Death,” walks the tightrope of executing a fairly complicated murder mystery with the right amount of satirical elements. A Golden Age seasoned sleuth (David Suchet’s face immediately pops up) picks the murderer correctly amidst all the red herrings. Adajania’s task was to deliver a neatly wrapped, cozy murder mystery amidst all other distractions. And he does that, albeit with fumbles that do not suit Golden Age detectives. But everyone cannot be Hercule Poirot. “Murder Mubarak” is a fine addition to Bollywood’s pitiful reserve of murder mysteries.
Bollywood has been tactless when it comes to capturing the coziness of Golden Age Murder Mysteries. Perhaps fueled by the recent success of Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” franchise, there has been a recent upward turn when it comes to murder mysteries. Last year’s “Neeyat,” starring Vidya Balan, was one such example — a poor example that might as well not exist. “Murder Mubarak” would be a fairly glorious entrant in that regard. I must say I would still fall back on B.R. Chopra’s simple and neat Agatha Christie adaptation, “Dhund” (1973), as the best from Bollywood.
Enough digressing. “Murder Mubarak” starts, as you might guess, with a murder at an aristocratic, British-era club that caters to the vanity of ultra-riches and helps them maintain their facade. The suspect list includes decadent royal descendent Rannvijay (Sanjay Kapoor), popular middle-aged actress Shehnaz (Karisma Kapoor), young widow Bambi (Sara Ali Khan), spoilt brat Yash (Suhail Nayyar) with substance abuse problem, Yash’s superficially callous mom Roshni (Tisca Chopra), and young lawyer who is trying to shed his privileged position Akash (Vijay Varma).
The victim is one Leo (Ashim Gulati), the gym trainer of the club and a known philanderer. Apart from philandering, Leo also dabbles in philanthropy. He made it his job to learn the secrets of the club members and blackmail them. He would then donate that money to the orphanage where he grew up. This Robin-Hood/Eat-the-Rich aspect of Leo’s life is another layer of mysticism and satire. So, when Leo is found dead, it does not take much for soft-spoken but fluent-in-Hindi ACP Bhavani Singh (Pankaj Tripathi) to deduce that there has been a murder.
Without delving further into the mystery lest it spoils the experience, Gazal Dhaliwal and Suprotim Sengupta’s adapted screenplay had plenty of other eccentric characters. Some serve the purpose of entangling the mystery further, like Brijendra Kala’s dementia-riddled Guppie Ram. Some elevate the satirical overtones of the film with their idiosyncrasies, like Deven Bhojani’s excellent club President.
There are some genuine snappily neat humorous dialogue and scenes. Homi Adajania revels there. But a small complaint could be made about filling the mystery with red herrings. The film opens brilliantly with a red herring and then proceeds to the real murder. However, some of the succeeding red herrings are merely there to convolute, and they do not pose as a clever ruse.
One such example would be the introduction of the waitress, whom we see pleasuring Leo orally in the very beginning. And the consequential animosity from her side when she sees Leo immediately moving to the next woman. But her character gets stunted at that only, and she plays no further role, neither in the mystery nor in the satire. She is a ghost of a red herring.
In the spirit of complaining, I must say Sara Ali Khan disappoints. She does well when she is this naive and free-spirited girl. But when additional layers are imposed on her character, she struggles, especially towards the end. It appears she was cast for the sole reason of making it poetic when her Bambi pleads her love for all things privileged.
Pankaj Tripathi fits his detective role a little too well. It almost becomes a stereotype of his recent characters. Yet I can’t deny his Bhavani Singh would be a fondly remembered sleuth. The rest of the massive ensemble cast is immaculate in their respective roles. If I had to name one as the best, I would name Tisca Chopra. And Sanjay Kapoor.
The film ends with the usual denouement, which is a tad heavy with exposition than I would have preferred. But it does wrap the mystery satisfyingly. You don’t notice camerawork when it comes to films like this, but cinematographer Linesh Desai makes some of the frames stand out. One particular shot of Bambi and Akash sitting by the pool, pondering what their love could have been, comes to mind. The music and the song “Yaad Aave” are forgettable and often disconcerting. For a film where I have so many complaints, “Murder Mubarak” would still be one of my favorites when it comes to Hindi murder mystery films.
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