What Is the Story About?
New Netflix original film ‘Murder Mubarak’ is set in the backdrop of the swish Royal Delhi Club, frequented by snooty Delhi socialites. All hell breaks loose at the club one morning when the club’s hunky personal trainer Leo Mathews (Ashim Gulati) is found dead, crushed under his own barbells.
When mild-mannered but shrewd ACP Bhavani Singh (Pankaj Tripathi) begins investigating the murder, he puts every member of the club under the scanner, besides digging up buried skeletons along the way.
Murder Mubarak is directed by Homi Adajania, produced by Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films and scripted by Gazal Dhaliwal and Suprotim Sengupta from Anuja Chauhan’s novel, ‘Club You To Death’.
Performances?
The performances in Murder Mubarak are excellent across the board. Credit for that goes to the casting, which is flawlessly perfect. Every carefully-chosen actor does complete justice to their character. Pankaj Tripathi brings his trademark unassuming demeanour and enigmatic smile to his role of Assistant Commissioner Of Police, Bhavani Singh. He’s as efficient as ever, though a tad typecast.
Sara Ali Khan is excellent as the rich girl with heart, Bambi. She’s evolved as an actor with each new outing, and is quite watchable in Murder Mubarak. Vijay Varma is the beating heart of the movie. He’s earnest and eye-candy, rolled into one.
Karisma Kapoor is the embodiment of the adage “once a diva always a diva”. She brings both glamour and grit to her role of the starlet Shehnaz Noorani. Sanjay Kapoor is terrific as Raja Rannvijay Singh. He proves why old-school acting is still the best form of acting. Dimple Kapadia is superb as the ‘kookie’ Kooky Aunty, as is Tisca Chopra as the nouveu rich, Roshni Chopra. Suhail Nayyar, Tara Alisha Berry, Brijendra Kala, and finally, Ashim Gulati, as the murdered man, are all equally good.
Analysis
The best murder mysteries are those that have atmospheric settings, engaging characters, thrilling plots fraught with intrigue, incredibly suspenseful plot twists, gripping edge-of-the-seat tautness and a story that hooks you from the get-go. Netflix’s Murder Mubarak has none of these. Which is why Murder Mubarak will never end up in the list of the best murder mysteries in Indian cinema. If at all, it’ll only be counted as one amongst the many mid movies that land on streaming, only to disappear without a trace into the big black void of obscurity.
The fault for that lies not in the craft of the writers and director. It lies in the fact that the basic premise of the story is as shallow and scatter-brained as the characters that populate it. It is a narrative where more emphasis is laid on the trimmings than on the meat in the story; on the show-sha than on the intensity; on the exalted cast than on the characters; thereby distracting and leading the viewer away from the mystery at hand.
Net result – at no point in the story do we feel the need to give it our undivided attention or sit glued to our chairs lest we miss something of significance. On the contrary, all of it seems frivolous and banal enough to make us watch it with a detached interest in the goings-on, while multi-tasking with a gazillion other things.
Murder Mubarak never feels like something that needs your undivided attention to watch. Heck, even the verbose ‘Anatomy Of A Fall’, decidely not much of a murder mystery to begin with, warrants one’s complete unblinking attention. One expects better from an out and out murder mystery, for sure.
The narrative often gets boring and contrived at several points in the movie, making us wonder where it’s all leading up to. A few red herrings make their presence felt, but even they do nothing to perk up the story. Soon, whatever little intrigue the makers manage to drum up also fizzles out like a faulty firecracker by the end. An end which is merely an exposition dump and not even an anti-climax, let alone a worthy climax.
The only good thing about Murder Mubarak is its superb casting. The cast has been chosen with such thought and insight that it feels almost as if Anuja Chauhan wrote her characters with precisely these actors in mind. Or maybe, the performers themselves are so good that they persuade us to believe as if the roles were written just for them and them alone. Either way, it is a triumph of casting.
To sum it up, Murder Mubarak is a mildly engaging murder mystery which is made one-time watchable only due to its terrific casting.
Music and Other Departments?
Sachin – Jigar’s musical score for the movie is passable – nothing to write home about. Linesh Desai’s cinematography is good – a few shot compositions are excellent to watch. Akshara Prabhakar’s editing is choppy and leaves much to be desired.
Highlights?
The terrific casting
The superb performances
Drawbacks?
Superficial writing takes away from the tautness of the murder mystery
Too boring and contrived at times
Did I Enjoy It?
I found it average
Will You Recommend It?
Only as a one-time watch
Murder Mubarak Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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