 "Pankaj Tripathi, Sara Ali Khan, Vijay Varma, Karisma Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia’s Murder Mubarak Movie Review | Netflix")
Intense and sharp writing with Homi Adajania’s brilliance that’s how the magic is created in Netflix’s Murder Mubarak. Sara Ali Khan definitely delivered her best. Based on Anuja Chauhan’s novels on the high class Delhi society with its shallow thinking and flaunting of wealth, every single actor whether it was Pankaj Tripathi playing ACP Bhavani Singh to Vijay Varma who plays the role of a simple lawyer to Dimple Kapadia playing the tharki (lascivious) aunty, everybody has done a great job. The story revolves around a high society Delhi club which becomes home for many.
You need to think differently when you are catering to the evolved digital audience and Homi Adajania has given it all with beautifully scripted characters, with its twists and turns. And most importantly delving on the back stories and different layers of the characters portrayed in the film with its vulnerability making it look as real as possible. Murder Mubarak makes you think and leaves you guessing all the time.
For ACP Bhavani Singh (Pankaj Tripathi) everybody is a suspect. The characters are true and many of us has seen such characters especially people like Rannvijay Singh (Sanjay Kapoor), who is suited and booted in the clubs, but lives in a shabby house and takes left-overs home, but tells the people in the club that he is going to feed it to the poor. He insists that everyone must call him ‘hukum’ and hands out 20 rupee tips. Then we have Shehnaaz Noorani (Karisma Kapoor) who is a B-grade heroine of C-grade movies with a shady past life and childhood spent in the chawls (slums); the always tipsy, Cookie Katoch (Dimple Kapadia) who sips on tequila-and beetroot cocktail whose hormones are raging and is kind of sex-starved. But the most intriguing is the love story of Akash Dogra (Vijay Varma) and Bambi Todi (Sara Ali Khan). And how can we forget Ganga (Tara Alisha Berry) who is a beautician in the club and has an important back story which has a huge connection with the murder.
Murder Mubarak is a character heavy movie and there are times you can get confused too. Murder with a twist, I guess it is only Anuja Chauhan who can think of such a wicked story and most importantly Homi Adajania has done justice to the story by depicting it well on screen. And the ensemble of characters is excellent too without which the movie wouldn’t have been such a joyous watch. Netflix’s Murder Mubarak emphasises on the fact that how shallow the so called elites of our society are especially in the way they think and especially in the way they conduct themselves.
Anuja Chauhan’s books are always a delightful read whether it is her ‘Those Pricy Thakur Girls’ or ‘Club You To Death’ and thankfully Homi Adajania has given his career best with Murder Mubarak.
The story starts with Zumba instructor Leo Mathew (Aashim Gulati) found dead in the club, which the owners make it look like an accident. And the story of Netflix’s Murder Mubarak revolves around that. The movie has a typical Agatha Christie style of narration with a Delhi razzmatazz. It’s a direct hit at the hollow and privileged people of the fictitious Royal Delhi Club.
One craftsman that is wasted in this film, I would say is Dimple Kapadia. I wanted to see more of her in Murder Mubarak as she too has a sad backstory dealing with an ailing husband. And I also understand that the narrative would have shifted had we concentrated too much on her, but then this role could have been done by anybody else, we don’t need a brilliant actor like her to do it. She has been definitely underused in the film.
I will not complain about the length of the film and I am happy that the movie was a fun watch because of the length and dramas around the characters. I am glad that the editor, Akshara Prabhakar, has kept the layers of the characters intact by not going easy with her knife. Murder Mubarak may not be the best whodunnit, but it is definitely worth multiple watches.
Rating: 3 and half out of 5
WATCH the trailer of Murder Mubarak here:
Lachmi Deb Roy is the entertainment editor of Firtspost, Network18. She reviews films and series with a gender lens. Her interviews are called 'Not Just Bollywood' because she takes huge interest in world cinema. OTT over theatrical releases is her preference unless and until its a King Khan film. She takes interest in fashion, food and art reviews too.