Homi Adajania unveils ‘Murder Mubarak’

Murder, old men and a face immersing in a bathtub. Director Homi Adajania’s Murder Mubarak, frequently brought back memories of his debut feature Being Cyrus (2005). With his latest Netflix stint, Adajania takes the setting to an exclusive Delhi club, filled with gaudy caricatures. The film, just like Cyrus, is more of a quirky societal study than a murder mystery. But unlike the Saif Ali Khan headliner, the class satire in this film, although enjoyable at times, gets too on the nose. Murder Mubarak relishes in its loose eccentricity but the thriller at its centre often loses grip. It’s more of an absurdist comedy packaged in the delicious pulpiness of a whodunit.

Although, for the murder at the core of the film, no blood is shed. Womanizer Leo Matthews (Aashim Gulati) is found dead in the gym of the Royal Delhi Club. It seems like a classic case of a bench press gone wrong. But nothing can escape from the sharp eyes of Pankaj Tripathi’s chaste Hindi-speaking cop Bhavani Singh (He even dons two glasses). The helium balloons over the CCTV camera suggest that this might be a murder.

The suspects are an idiosyncratic bunch of South Delhi socialites. There is royalty-hungover cheapskate Raja Rannvijay Singh (Sanjay Kapoor), yesteryear diva turned horror schlock star Shehnaz Noorani (Karisma Kapoor), rich-girl with tragic past Bambi Todi (Sara Ali Khan), lovelorn lawyer Aakash Dogra (Vijay Varma), garrulous gossiper Roshni Batra (Tisca Chopra), her rehab-returned son Yash Batra (Suhail Nayyar) and alcoholic Cookie Katoch (Dimple Kapadia). Leo was blackmailing all the members to get donations for his orphanage. Everybody had a bone to pick with him and had skeletons in their closets.