Review: The Buckingham Murders

The Buckingham Murders, genre-wise, among thrillers, is a police procedural which can become the most boring among thrillers if not handled carefully by a tight-knit script, strong direction and brilliant performances by a hand-picked cast.

What about The Buckingham Murders directed by Hansal Mehta released recently on NETFLIX? It is slightly a bit off-the track entry into the police thriller genre by Mehta who has been more involved with making scam-related thrillers for OTP than police thrillers set against the backdrop of Buckinghamshire distanced from his home-base, India. However, till date, this director has not trudged the “very” mainstream path littered with mainstream “specialists” like Kareena Kapoor who, along with Ekta Kapoor has produced this film and also played the protagonist in a film which does not have the conventional “hero”.

This critic fell in love with his feature films, the National Award-winning Shahid which fetched for Rajkumar Rao his National Award and also for him, alongside Aligarh which is perhaps an award-winning performance by ManojBajpai. He also scored a top ten with Lootere with a very unusual performance with the then-new Ranbir Singh and a beautiful Poonam Sinha which proved his perfection in handling classical romances. But he did not walk that way again because the film was a commercial flop.

The Buckingham Murders does not quite walk the mainstream masala way with the sole exception of Kareena Kapoor. She plays Jasmeet Bhamra aka Jas, a forty-something single mother, who is completely drained of any emotion except  overwhelmed with the grief of losing her small boy in a sudden shootout at a local pub. Trying to be a very strong woman who is also a British-Indian cop employed with the British police, she is hell-bent on not sharing her feelings of loss and pretending that everything is alright. But everything is not alright and this comes across when she requests a demotional transfer to Buckinghamshire hoping it will help her to cope with her grief.

Ishpreet, the boy who has gone missing, is almost the same age as Jaspreet’s own son. This draws her emotionally into the crime while the NRIs living in the neighbourhood, already struck by the simmering of conflict between the local Muslims and the Sikhs makes things quite difficult for the local police in general and Jaspreet in particular.

The minute she takes up office in this new place, she is vested with the responsibility of sharing the tough job of this Sikh boy who has gone missing and a young Muslim boy is suspected of having kidnapped him. Jaspreet finds it difficult to suppress her anger issues and strikes her immediate superior, also a NRI with personal problems of his own and is suspended and taken off the course.

The Buckingham Murders shapes itself into a conventional police procedural in which the police and police work involving a crime or crimes take centre stage. The difference lies in fleshing out characters who do not quite belong to the police such as the distraught parents of Ishpreet, namely, DaljeetKohli (RanveerBrar) and PreetiKohli (Prabhleen Kaur)  whose marriage is in deep trouble. This does take away from the main story but we realize that this was necessary to establish the climax.

What happens to the missing boy, whether he is finally found or not, or, in what state becomes marginalized to focus on the story of two different mothers, namely, Jaspreet, the committed cop who keeps working on the case even when she is suspended, and PreetiKohli, the grieving mother of Ishpreet, which steers away from the focus of the police procedural genre and shifts to the difference in the impact on two mothers who have both left to grieve over the same loss.It also raises questions on motherhood as an idol to be worshipped or an image people have conceived which is more illusory and idealistic than real.

The bluish grey colours of the chilling cold of Buckinghamshire adds to the sternness, dryness and cold character of the narrative as it swerves from being a strictly police procedural to a humanistic story of two mothers which gives the audience something more interesting to look forward to. The BGM is quite apt and the cinematography and production design add to the chilly and cold ambience of the story. The police procedurals could have been cut down a bit as the common man in the audience may find it a bit too complicated.

Though two disastrous incidents that bring in the dangers of drug pushing and drug addiction of youngsters their parents know nothing about add their bit of ‘social agendra’, The Buckingham Murders is very much a character-centric story with each character fleshed out clearly with gray shades included. Having said this, one must admit that the supporting cast such as RanveerBrar who comes across with a natural performance while PreetiKohli as his grief-stricken wife have truly put in some very honest and value-added performances.

But having said this, the film owes its very existence and pull in the panoramic world of police thrillers to the masterfully incredible performance of Kareena Kapoor as JaspreetBhamra, the no-nonsense, cut-and-dried police officer who tries to shield her personal grief with her choice for solitude and hard core professionalism from beginning to end. The stern jawline, the unsmiling exterior, the hard look in her eyes, her erect body language is more than one would expect of a cop, as she is trying hard to hide her personal grief from surfacing on her persona. This spells out the entire story of the life of a woman who is independent, alone, but also a mother and a grieving one at that.

Hats off to Hansal Mehta, Kareena Kapoor and the entire team for this police thriller-cum-humane story through The Buckingham Murders. It will not win any awards but will be liked and loved by many, including people who are not Kareena Kapoor fans.

*****