Lord Curzon Ki Haveli movie review: This mystery drama could have been a stage play
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Lord Curzon Ki Haveli Photograph: (X)
Lord Curzon Ki Haveli movie review: Actor Anshuman Jha's directorial debut, Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, builds an interesting premise but is unable to hold the viewers' attention throughout the course of the film. It features Rasika Dugal, Paresh Pahuja and Arjun Mathur in the lead.
Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, directed by Anshuman Jha, may have been a great mystery thriller on paper. The film, with a very Hitchcock vibe, starts on a promising note, but soon enough, almost 15 minutes into the film, it loses steam. Yes, that early. I will be honest, I sat alone only for its actors. It features Anuj Mathur, Rasika Dugal, Paresh Pahuja and Zoha Rahman- all very watchable actors, all who have proved their mettle in projects before. But Lord Curzon Ki Haveli is unable to use these actors to their hilt thanks to a sketchy plot which is woke unnecessarily and a terribly written screenplay.
What’s the plot of Lord Curzon Ki Haveli?
Ira (Dugal) and Basuki (Paresh Pahuja) are invited to Ira’s friend Sanya (Raman) and Rohit (Mathur) for dinner. Basuki, an uptight man, isn’t quite comfortable with the casual ways of Sanya and Rohit, who are easygoing and want Ira and Basuki to have a good time. Soon after they enter Sanya and Rohit’s home, Basuki spots a trunk placed in their living room and gets curious about what’s inside it. Rohit initially jokes that a dead body- more specifically, of Lord Curzon- is kept inside. As Basuki gets curious and insists on opening the lock, Rohit and Sanya keep insisting that it was meant to be a joke.
The film’s story, spread across a single night, has only five characters. Two couples, and a brown skin pizza delivery guy (Tanmay Dhanania) who gets unnecessarily dragged in their complex situation.
Meant for the stage, not the big screen
Stagey, campy and vague- Lord Curzon Ki Haveli leaves so many unanswered questions right from the beginning and till the end, they are not answered. Sanya and Rohit are shown in some sort of role-play sex moments before Ira and Basuki arrive. While Sanya is dressed in an elaborate attire in the beginning- supposedly for her guests- she ultimately greets the guests dressed in Rohit’s shirt and remains in that attire throughout. No explanation is given why she chose that attire.
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Basuki, an uptight, conservative man, is shown to be obsessed with what’s inside the trunk even when everyone else around him seems unbothered about it.
Then, at one point, Ira and Rohit are shown to dance to a grave Beethoven piece, completely out of the blue.
Inconsistent writing
The characters, at so many moments in the film, are just left sitting silently, with barely any dialogue. The scenes are badly edited, with long drawn single-take shots and plot twists that do not add up. Writer Bikas Ranjan Mishra never establishes any of the characters well or their backstory, or explains why they are the way they are. They also throw in some woke conversation about illegal immigrants, racism, and an obsession with white skin, arbitrarily, in the narrative.
Actors like Rasika Dugal, Arjun Mathur- who always manage to elevate a story with their performances are dragged down by a shoddy, incoherent script. Paresh Pahuja, usually a scene stealer with even limited screen time in other films, also fails to elevate this snooze fest.
Lord Curzon Ki Haveli builds a premise well for a mystery thriller, but it becomes a snooze fest ultimately. The film has been released in theatres across India.
