The Buckingham Murders review: Kareena Kapoor shines in a slow-paced murder mystery
Kareena Kapoor Khan in The Buckingham Murders
One must give credit to Kareena Kapoor Khan for choosing a film like The Buckingham Murders as her maiden production venture. Kareena is a bonafide Bollywood superstar who has earned stardom by featuring in a slew of Bollywood potboilers and has always been loved for her glamorous avatar. But in Hansali Mehta's directorial The Buckingham Murders, Kareena sheds her image of a Bollywood Diva and plays an anguished British cop, who has to solve a case of a missing teenager even as she grapples with personal loss.
The film, co-produced by Ekta Kapoor and Kareena, is starkly different from the films fans associate the star with. Kareena appears sans makeup or glamour in a role that debunks a certain perception about her. It is a grim character and an equally grim premise that The Buckingham Murders is based on and so it takes a while to get used to the film.
Kareena plays Jass Bhamra, a detective who has recently been transferred to Wycombe High, a small British town after she loses her young son to a shooting episode. Grappling with depression, Jass is given the task of investigating a case of a missing Indian teenager. As she struggles to cope with her loss and concentrate on work, the case itself becomes bigger, compelling Jass to look beyond the obvious. While the suspect is a Muslim boy who seems to have admitted to killing the boy, Jass feels there is more to the case and sets out to find the actual truth even as communal tensions rise among the South Asian population in the town.
The Buckingham Murders is unlike other Bollywood films. The cast is relatively unknown, barring known faces like Ranveer Brar and Sara Jane Dias. It consists of a bunch of South Asian-origin British actors who bring authenticity to the narrative. The film is also mostly in English (it has also been dubbed in Hindi for a wider audience) and sans the exaggerated drama that comes along when watching a Hindi film.
Writers Aseem Arrora, Raghav Raj Kakker and Kashyap Kapoor create a meditative premise and borrows quite a bit of the plot from Kate Winslet's Mare of the Easttown. However, the writers spin the narrative to suit the Indian sensibilities making the protagonist a grieving mother who lives alone and is also a cop. The communal angle is also added to address Islamophobia and Homophobia.
While the script allows several of the actors ample scope to perform and shine, it is ultimately Kareena Kapoor who shines in her role as the quiet, grieving, cold Jass. Her character is suchthat one could easily over-dramatize it, but Kareena puts in a solid performance as Jass who is struggling to move after a deep personal loss and who is often mansplained at work or written off as someone who is getting personally involved in the case. Kareena delivers a restraint performance and there isn't a single false note in her act. In her deglamorised outing, Kareena plays a character closer to her actual age and someone who has had to take up too many responsibilities right from an early age.
Well-known celebrity chef Ranveer Brar too is stellar in his performance as the man who has lost his son and has a strained relationship with his wife. Brar's character is of a misogynist whose only connection to the family was the son who now is gone. Brar holds his own in scenes in the climax and delivers a compelling performance. Brit-Asian actor Ash Tandon, who madehis Bollywood debut with this film, is also very good as DI Hardik, a smart detective who heads the case initially.
The Buckingham Murders, however, is a slow-burner thriller that takes time to get used to. The thrill element is much less as the makers try to stuff multiple issues into the narrative. I wish they just stuck to murder mystery and that would haveleft a more lasting impression. The songs, extremely weirdly placed in the narrative, too just hamper the viewing experience.
The film works majorly because of Kareena Kapoor who transforms into agrieving mother quite effortlessly.
The Buckingham Murders is running in theatres across the country.
