By arrangement
The grief of a mother, a classic whodunnit, and complexities of communal tension — Hansal Mehta’s ‘The Buckingham Murders’ delivers all of these, and more. Police officer Jass Bhamra accepts a demotion to a new town in her attempt to process the loss of her son in a public shooting, but ends up having to encounter her reality head-on as she is immediately assigned the case of the mysterious murder of another young Indian child.
The quick pacing lays down the premise of the crime thriller as quite a straightforward one: a youngster caught up in dealing drugs loses his life in a case of rage killing. But further investigation soon unravels various sub-plots: personal revenge, the loopholes in state apparatus and justice systems, the complexities of drug abuse among youngsters, religious tensions within the South Asian diaspora in Buckingham, and even the pitfalls of patriarchal and heteronormative familial structures. However, the suspense expected from a crime thriller gets lost amidst the multiple humanistic strands.
Storywriter Aseem Arora does a commendable job of humanising each and every character, highlighting their infallibility and moral greyness while painting a holistic picture of each. All those loose strands are all tied up, albeit hurriedly, in the end, leaving a quite satiated aftertaste to the watching experience.
Kareena Kapoor Khan shines as the grieving mother who tackles the case with grace while constantly battling her personal loss. The seasoned actor delivers quite a poignant performance, and is definitely the hook for the movie overall, with supporting roles adding their limited yet essential ingredients to the near-perfect blend. Although not mind-boggling state-of-the-art cinema, ‘The Buckingham Murders’ makes a decent movie to be enjoyed in the theatres over the weekend.