Motion Picture Reviews and Insights- Vaishali Adwant

Delhi’s elite Royal Club is filled with idiosyncratic motley of characters who are all prime suspects of the murder of a gym trainer Leo. ACP Bhawani Singh(Pankaj Tripathi) is assigned to investigate the case. Zumba trainer Leo is found dead in the gym which initially seems like an accident. The film starts with a nonchalant investigation leading to too many cues connecting all the characters. It’s hard to tell until the end who killed Leo.

Leo has been blackmailing most of the club members to give donations to his orphanage. Leo is no saint. He is a shady, immoral character who uses the weakness of the club members to his advantage. RanVijay Singh(Sanjay Kapoor) is a royal with a lost glory who pretends to have it all. Shenaaz Noorani(Karishma Kapoor) is a middle-aged actress who had a skirmish with Leo and is a suspect.

Roshni Batra(Tischa Chopra), the gossip queen who’s druggie son stalks Bambi Todi(Sara Ali Khan) is a suspect for this reason. Aakash Dogra(Vijay Verma) is a lawyer and a friend of kleptomaniac Bambi. Cookie Katoch(Dimple Kapadia) is an amateurish sculptor and a sex addict.

Guppie Ram(Brijendra Kalra) plays the demented janitor who seems to hold the key to unveil the murder mystery. The movie attempts at slapstick comedy from the 70’s and fails to make you laugh. It only amuses you, keeping you intrigued till the end. This is no edge-of-your-seat murder mystery but the story serpentines through unpredictable twists which keeps you interested.

Zee5 probably started the trend of goofy murder mysteries with films like Silence, Forensic, Sunflower web series with a good plot but goofiness that makes you uneasy. The attempted humor in Murder Mubarak is middling but does not lose insight of a murder mystery.

Pankaj Tripathi gives monovular performance regardless of the film genre or character he plays. His performance does not change an inch be it Criminal Justice, Kadak Singh, or Murder Mubarak according to the character he plays. He follows an identical template of acting that does not change with the story or character, making it monotonous.

Bollywood is humor deficient. The filmmakers still think the 70’s slapstick humor template can make the audience laugh. Talking of slapstick comedies, Amol Palekar’s Choti Si Baat, Khatti Meethi are still enjoyable. But the humor style fits like a fiddle with the story. I think adding slapstick humor to murder mysteries is a total misfit which makes the audience uneasy. Maybe filmmakers must stop adding goofiness to whodunits because it makes them cringe-worthy.

Vijay Verma brings enough depth to the story connecting the dots that keep you guessing till the end. All the characters are pied together making an assorted mess that is engaging enough till the end. A worthwhile watch on Netflix that might bore at times but is engrossing to keep you on your toes.