In recent years, the rise of OTT platforms and original content has led to a wave of murder mysteries because they work; people want more of them. But like many cooks spoil the broth, so many suspects kill the suspense in this genre. Zee5’s new offering ‘House of Lies’ by Sanjay Kapoor is about Albert Pinto who died under mysterious circumstances. It tries to find out if he died a natural death, as claimed by his family, or it was a murder. Let’s see how it executed its promising premise.
‘House of Lies’: Story
‘House of Lies’ starts with the fact that Albert Pinto (late Rituraj K Singh) is dead and he was found at his home in Goa where he threw a party on his birthday night. Following it up is Special Investigating Officer Rajveer Singh Choudhary (Sanjay Kapoor) arriving at the crime scene. Abhay (Hiten Paintal), a sub-inspector from local police, and Sashi (Simran Kaur Suri) from Enforcement Directorate join him in this case. With Rajveer leading it all, they interrogate every person in and around who attended the party be it family or friends without any hesitation or second thought.
Amongst the suspects are Albert’s wife Ragini (Ssmilley Suri), brother Anthony (Girish Sharma), sister-in-law Aastha (Taniya Chatterjee), lawyer Karan (Jaydeep Ashra), doctor Fernandes (Mir Sarwar), friend Col Verma (Sukhangshu Chatterjee) and house help Zaid (Ajitesh Gupta). So who killed whom? Who is Albert? Or rather how did Albert die? And most importantly: who wanted his Rs 35 crore worth crypto currency so badly? The film aims to answer these questions.
‘House of Lies’: Performances
Sanjay Kapoor and Hiten Paintal, who play the two main investigating officers, don’t bring enough sternness to their characters. Kapoor fails to bring that required gravity and command in his portrayal of a man whose authority should not be questioned which is quite shocking coming from such an amazing actor. On the other hand, Paintal’s performance seems a little subdued but his expressions remain firm throughout. In total honesty though, these are the only performances worth mentioning. The third authoritative figure Simran Kaur Suri is just one-dimensional hot-head character who becomes too obsessed with missing crypto currency.
Rituraj K Singh had limited screen time but in those few minutes he gave his best shot at it by playing his part naturally bringing the character alive despite being dead throughout the film. Rest of the cast including Ssmilley Suri, Girish Sharma, Taniya Chatterjee, Jaydeep Ashra, Mir Sarwar, Sukhangshu Chatterjee and Ajitesh Gupta are nothing more than caricatures. I mean they’re suspects so they should act like ones right? There are barely any facial expressions and their body language seems forced with some bland dialogues delivered in one-toned manner.
“House of Lies”: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects
What initially hooks you is the opening voiceover. It presents three different views on how to uncover the truth while solving a case setting up the hype around a good murder mystery. But then you start realizing that there’s nothing new here other than many culprits. If anything, it tries too hard to keep your attention with some ‘funny’ lines that aren’t even funny. Thankfully, without subplots, the story remains focused on Albert’s death alone. However, it is hilarious and poorly executed from the beginning who kills him for example all these officers don’t follow basic protocol we have seen in other movies during investigations. Yes its premise is something we are all familiar with but what happens doesn’t make it better.
Some shots are visually pleasing but not all of them work out perfectly color grading is too bright and there is no grey aura that comes with murder mysteries which should be present somewhere somehow in this film. There are times when camera is played around with too much which becomes heavy on eyes plus also scene cuts become too abrupt sometimes; over the shoulder shots taken between two people talking abruptly switch back and forth every dialogue making one almost painful watching such an act. The only thing about duration of this movie that i am okay with is its runtime, had it been any longer then it would have been a complete snooze fest.
It’s always sad when good stories are wasted by telling them wrong way considering how much could have been done differently especially within single narrative having potential to weave webs full deceit betrayal . Unfortunately though Director Saumitra Singh failed at achieving smartness despite having enough chances for clever presentation around still very few moments or scenes contribute towards creating curiosity even so must admit twisted psychology ride till last scene
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