At a posh club in Delhi, three days before election day, a beefy Zumba trainer dies. It is being passed off as an accident at the gym. But one seasoned cop can smell something fishy even through his mask. And he knows that there’s more on the menu than meets the eye.
That’s how Murder Mubarak starts like a whodunnit with the soul of a caper film. Edited crisply and populated by performances that for the most part hit just the right notes for this sort of thing, it remains watchable till its very last frame.
As Assistant Commissioner of Police Bhavani Singh (Pankaj Tripathi) hunts for answers and ties himself in knots over where to find them, this Homi Adajania-directed murder mystery keeps twisting along those unfamiliar/ergo unpredictable corridors that keep you on edge while you stream it on Netflix.
At one point towards the end, our cop calls what we have just seen “a funny love story.” It indeed is. Murder Mubarak isn’t just about people falling in love or even about individuals having affairs at a swish club; it also concerns itself with an entire collective’s passionate fling with such establishments where rich folks go to pretend wash away their problems.
In another stage of his investigation, Bhavani proposes that usually murderers are common people. The policeman suggests he’d be someone like him or her a member of some club who must be patting himself on back right now over how he got away with murder.
Adapted for screen by Gazal Dhaliwal and Suprotim Sengupta from Anuja Chauhan’s Club You to Death, Murder Mubarak throws together bigmouths, hunks, voyeurs, socialites/predators/lovers et al who all feature as suspects on Bhavani’s list.
The man who is dead, Leo Matthews (Aashim Gulati), appears to have given almost everyone he encountered a good reason for wanting him dead. Bhavani’s task is not a breeze, but he makes it seem like that walk in the park as he lays traps one by one with the help of an able assistant, Sub-Inspector Padam Kumar (Priyank Tiwari), and waits for killer to walk into them, thereby showing himself up.
Bhavani isn’t like any other Hindi movie detective. He doesn’t wear uniform, doesn’t carry gun. This unflappable 48 year old bloke has slight pursed lips smile which broadens only when someone tries getting under his skin and evades answering questions using wit. His wife wants out because she can’t stand dirt anymore, her husband is just ten days off shift-change. From Delhi To Lucknow.
Laced with some dry humor aimed at privilege, vanity and the empty bubble that Royal Delhi Club represents, story uses tricks beloved by fans of detective genres to deliver critique about class anxious to keep what they think rightfully belongs within their grasp.
He also gets unsolicited help from young widow Bambi Todi (Sara Ali Khan) and activist-lawyer Akash “Kashi” Dogra (Vijay Varma), lovers who parted ways years ago for reasons we’re yet to figure out he’s in town for Diwali, been living Kolkata three years, during which time mom (Grusha Kapoor) believes son picked up “Commie” tendencies.
The needle of suspicion is pointing in all directions in Murder Mubarak. It does not spare anyone. This time, Bhavani’s radar has picked up on Cookie Katoch (Dimple Kapadia), famous for tequila and beetroot cocktail, Roshni Batra (Tisca Chopra) and her just-out-of-rehab son Yash Batra (Suhail Nayyar), a drug addict; and Shehnaz Noorani (Karisma Kapoor), a fading film star who throws her hat in the ring for the post of club president.
Shehnaz’s main rival is Rannvijay Singh (Sanjay Kapoor), a man from a royal family who never lets anyone forget his lineage. He is at home in a club where ayahs, servants, gunmen or security guards are not allowed beyond a point, and employees or waiters cannot use restrooms meant for members.
The staff at Royal Delhi Club where heads of state have played golf, outgoing president Devendra Bhatti (Deven Bhojani) tells Bhavani know how to settle scores with ill-behaved members. Guppie Ram (Brijendra Kala), one of the oldest staffers at the club, may have lost his mind but he knows enough to be of assistance to everyone.
And then there is Ganga (Tara Alisha Berry) who works in the club’s beauty parlour. Her back story starts tying into the investigation as Bhavani inches closer to unravelling the bottom line. What makes things tricky is that while it could be anybody who has ever had anything to do with the victims, none of them seems absolutely wicked either. They don’t look like people who would kill anyone.
Murder Mubarak kicks off with one death but doesn’t stop at that, three other murders follow one committed in the past, one suspected to be a suicide in the present and another that involves a pet in a tragic accident.
The film is set in a world where darkness of the soul rules but DoP Linesh Desai doesn’t drown it with excessively atmospheric lighting. Much of Murder Mubarak happens on open grounds but the film is within a cocoon. Life on Delhi’s streets or in neighbourhoods does not form part of the movie’s visual palette.
When Murder Mubarak moves indoors, again it’s not too gloomy or grim. The even lighting conveys superficiality of the club world. It also serves as contrast to complex, twisted knots that Bhavani has to untie.
Pankaj Tripathi’s performance is effortless and it helps Murder Mubarak settle into steady rhythm. Sara Ali Khan oscillates between being awkward as seductress and woman with her share of secrets. Vijay Varma keeps it simple and supple as man who is ill at ease with all ostentation around him.
As part of ensemble cast, Dimple Kapadia, Karisma Kapoor, Tisca Chopra and Sanjay Kapoor bring just right amount of playfulness and intensity required for their parts, adding their collective mite to jigsaw puzzle that Murder Mubarak essentially is.
It’s not action-packed in order to have effect, neither does talk get dull thanks to script. Editing keeps pace with speed at which investigation unfolds while directorial flourishes don’t allow film to become less than riveting from start till end.
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