Murder Mubarak Movie Review: Self-Aware Satire That Mostly Delivers on Whodunit Promise | bollywood

Murder Mubarak Movie Review: When it’s over, the temptation to weigh it alongside The White Lotus and the Knives Out franchise also disappears. Because Murder Mubarak isn’t essentially about a bunch of rich morons socializing at an angrezon ke zamaane ka (colonial) country club. It’s a self-aware piece of satire that ultimately works. (Also Read: OTT Releases to Watch This Weekend: Murder Mubarak to Bramayugam, Main Atal Hoon to Big Girls Don’t Cry and More)

The beginning of Murder Mubarak seems a little pretentious, as a list of generic high society characters with nicknames that are supposed to be shorthand for their character descriptions are presented, all the while when a boy searches for a cat named Prince Harry. . Karisma Kapoor plays a movie star whose stardom borders on failure, somewhat close to her contemporary Raveena Tandon in the recent Karmma Calling. Ashim Gulati and Suhail Nayyar co-starred in Jee Karda, another project set in a similar social class last year. There are also the character actors: Brijendra Kala, Tisca Chopra, Deven Bhojani and the reigning king of them all, the pleasant and loquacious Pankaj Tripathi. You think you’ve seen this movie before.

Twist in the story

Then the shenanigans begin. Vijay Varma’s character breaks the fourth wall to imitate Tripathi’s affection for oral gesticulation. It’s like saying, ‘I know what you see, but that’s not it.’ Director Homi Adajania, in his own unusual style, plays with the Rashomon effect. The charming script crosses realities, such as the dryly funny murder scene of a film in which Karisma, spattered with blood, whispers in Pankaj’s ear: “Yeh pata lagaane ki hi tankhwah sarkar aapko deti hai (the government pays you to find the murderer).)

This is Karisma’s return to the screen and she looks incredibly beautiful. But one of Murder Mubarak’s victories, as some may uniquely attribute to OTT, is that he never gives any particular character more gravitas. Karisma is funny in her portrayal of a B-list actor with a dark past, as is Sanjay Kapoor, who plays a lazy rajah who shows the ghosts of patriarchal pride at every opportunity.

Murder Mubarak, of course, is about murder, and in case you correctly solve the mystery halfway through the movie without the correct theorem, you will still be able to enjoy it. Crime novels are a highly functional genre because of the structure of revelation after revelation they need to continue and complicate the business end of the knot. Homi and his writers, Suprotim Sengupta and Gazal Dhaliwal, keep it light in this film.

The only complaint I have with the writing is that it falters at times, making obvious points with the attempted delicacy that comes with subtlety, including the stretched-out diatribe about communism and class commentary that Vijay’s mother doles out. The caricatured depictions of a shallow, materialistic Delhi elite group are, I suppose, primarily for comic relief, and thankfully Tisca imbues hers with a heightened goofiness glaze.

The verdict

At one point in the film, the talkative Pankaj Tripathi agrees with Vijay’s offhand suggestion that research and love are sides of the same coin. It is on that note that this story resolves itself. Since the plot comes from Anuja Chauhan’s novel Club You to Death, we give credit to the casting team for getting it right for the most part.

This is Sara Ali Khan’s most urbane role in a long time, and she makes the most of the agency given to this character. The script highlights to the hilt the viewer’s willingness to accept Vijay Varma’s character as a twisted and broken practitioner of casual violence.

The red herrings and backstory involving Varun Mitra could have had less screen time. Murder Mubarak probably would have worked better as a miniseries simply due to the need for length, but all said and done, this movie is essentially fun.

Entertainment! Entertainment! Entertainment! 🎞️🍿💃 Click to Follow our Whatsapp Channel 📲 Your daily dose of gossips, movies, shows, celebrity updates all in one place.