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The Great Indian Murder Review: Terrifically Captivating!
What: Disney + Hotstar’s The Great Indian Murder – the adaptation of Vikas Swarup’s 2008 novel Six Suspects by Tigmanshu Dhulia is a terrifically captivating crowd pleasing crime thriller.
OTT web series The Great Indian Murder review
Based on Vikas Swarup (The author of “Q&A on which the global hit “Slumdog Millionaire,” was based) Six Suspects. The Great Indian Murder written by Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vijay Maurya and Puneet Sharma proves that Vikas Swarup wrote even Six Suspects like a pulpy Bollywood thriller mystery with unique, eccentric characters.
Slumdog Millionaire focused around a ‘chaiwala’ who becomes a millionaire, six suspects is about the murder of a spoilt influential multi millionaire Vicky Rai - character modeled on Manu Sharma, the murderer of Jessica Lal played by Jatin Goswami. Vicky Rai lives life King size, a Casanova who has series of controversies surrounding him.
Vicky Rai gets accused of killing two minor girls but gets acquitted. To celebrate his freedom, Vicky Rai throws a party at his farmhouse and is shot dead.
A tribal from Andaman Eketi (Mani) and a waiter Munna (Shashank Arora) get arrested for having guns in possession during the security check after the shocking incident. Vicky Rai’s father Jagannath Rai (Ashutosh Rana) an influential state politician in the state of Uttarakhand demands a CBI inquiry into the murder of his cocky, misogynistic son to set his political and personal agendas with the help of the powerful leader Ambika Prasad (Vineet Kumar).
CBI officer Suraj Yadav (Pratik Gandhi) is given the task to solve the case with Sudha Bharadwaj (Richa Chadha) the cop who was in the investigating team that conducted Vicky Rai’s fresh minor girl’s murder case as his assistant.
As the case of Vicky Rai progresses, the dirty world of greed, deceit, politics, racism, nationalism, Gandhism, honesty, morality, duty, love, jealousy make an entry from time to time while the snaky investigation is busy traveling all over India.
Right from the posh Delhi Farmhouse where the murder took place to the forests of Chattisgarh, to the islands of Andaman, to Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan.
A sacred deity of Andaman gets stolen, a corrupt bureaucrat named Mohan Kumar (Raghubir Yadav) who suddenly starts suffering from a ‘dissociative identity disorder’ – where his alternative identity is none other than the father of our nation – Mahatma Gandhi. There is also a masked YouTuber who has made his mission to expose Vicky Rai and the top shots of the state. And yes, some Naxalism as well, The Great Indian Murder has everything.
The writing by Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vijay Maurya and Puneet Sharma is engaging and keeps the audience on the hook; the narration by Tigmanshu Dhulia is captivating throughout. Both the writers and the directors are able to add some sly/dark humour in the proceedings.
The most striking part of The Great Indian Murder is interestingly not the ‘murder’, it’s about the ‘death’ of various elements in this sort of Agatha Christie mystery shot through Dhulia’s eyes style whodunit.
The individual stories of the suspects that come ‘alive’ after the death of a rich spoiled and influential brat Vicky Rai adds unexpected layers to this pulpy, crowd pleasing whodunit.
Performance
Pratik Gandhi is fabulously nuanced as CBI officer Suraj Yadav.
Richa Chadha is excellent.
Ashutosh Rana is sheer brilliance.
Raghubir Yadav is outstanding.
Sharib Hashmi spins a surprise as the welfare officer Ashok Rajput.
Paoli Dam is fantastic.
Shashank Arora is amazing.
Vineet Kumar is a delight.
Amey Wagh leaves an impression.
Last but not the least, Jatin Goswami as Vicky Rai is a knockout.
Technicalities
Cinematographer Rishi Punjabi ensures that the edgy feeling is maintained. Unnikrishnan P P and Prathamesh Chande’s editing is crisp. Music by Raghu Dixit and Ketan Sodha is atmospheric.
Flaws
A good degree of suspension of disbelieve is required. Paoli Dam’s character mysteriously disappears. Like Vikas Swarup’s novel Six Suspects, The Great Indian Murder also plays safe and avoids getting deep into the political debate strongly.
Final words
The Great Indian Murder is a terrifically captivating crowd pleasing crime drama that achieves a certain level of distinction of delving into couple of layers in its successful adaptation of Vikas Swarup’s Six Suspects by Tigmanshu Dhulia.
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma