The Buckingham Murders: A No Spoilers Review
Hansal Mehta’s The Buckingham Murders starring Kareena Kapoor came out of the blue, well, rather, grey November skies. It’s that match made in heaven when one flicks the Netflix charts and expects to find nothing substantial, but then, that chat on Whatsapp recommends a watch and you check out the watch time, under 2 hours? No excuses to not click on the watch button and get watching…
If Kareena Kapoor was enough to sell the movie, one would have thought many others would have won the jackpot. But club that with Hansal Mehta in the driving seat, a crime thriller coloured in shades of messy desi community tensions throwback to 2022 Leicester in the UK, and you have a story. It is but a win from the storytellers that The Buckingham Murders went beyond merely unpacking a murder mystery, to also shine the spotlight on community divisions, the trauma experienced from the loss of a child, single parenthood and aptly portrayed the lives of locals that inhabit the area. All that in under 2 hours, leaving viewers with a feeling of closure at the end of it all, means the creators had, in fact, pulled a rabbit out of a hat – the entire rabbit, mind you.
The Buckingham Murders is the story about a child, Ishpreet who goes missing, and (spoiler, but we assume the show title does that) subsequently found murdered in the vicinity. The quest begins as to who committed the murder and audiences and detectives alike, flit from one suspect to another, playing the guessing game that evolves as the drama progresses.
Kareena Kapoor essays detective Jasmeet Bhamra as a single parent who has just suffered the harrowing ordeal of having her own child murdered. She requests for a change of city to recover from the trauma and ends up in Leicester where she is assigned the missing boy Ishpreet’s case. Navigating the local detective and police force as well as interrogating suspects who deliver a lucid account of what really happened on the day Ishpreet went missing, Bhamra seemed to have a water-tight case. But something’s not right, observes Jass, and hence the story picks up once again halfway through the narrative.
If Kareena plans to reinvent her game in 2024 going forward, she’s hit a bullseye. From the initial storm raging inside Jass to the vacant expressions that perpetually remind us of her immense loss, to the need to not let go of a single piece of evidence that doesn’t tie in right (Ishpreet’s missing school bag for one), her character embodies the sharp detective, grieving mother, tough professional into a gripping onscreen presence.
Kareena did not overplay her role.
She did not feel the need to add an unnecessary twist to a straightforward character that was powerful enough in its grief and grit, and that spoke volumes to the viewers – Detective Jass did not fish for sympathy, yet the inner strength of a woman, single mother and professional rolled into one character urged instant trust and likeability from audiences. Jass was our heroine from the very first instance, and we wanted to watch her win.
With The Buckingham Murders, Kareena Kapoor has also ensured that she is able to carry a show on her own, with a confidence and believability that makes her the main and side characters all rolled into one and yet, it wasn’t all about her. Despite her main character feel, she did not take away from other performances but instead, added to them.
For those who might be put off by the dark story that Jasmeet carries, the director has made sure to give us her backstory and loss in a matter of minutes, right at the onset. The rest is Jass dealing with her loss in split second flashbacks and a pressing need to solve the case at hand.
For director Hansal Mehta to inject local communal tensions and not take away from the crime thriller theme of the show was a win. It ended up delivering fleshed out characters, each with their own challenges and multiple suspects, each with a possible motive for taking Ishpreet’s life. Hence the frictions between and within the communities were angled as possible reasons for taking a life, not allowing the central plot of the narrative to wander, but instead, adding more depth and human element to it.
If Daljeet Kohli was desperate for financial stability, Saleem had a shady past. If Naved and Saqib were at the crime scene moments before, Detective Hardik Patel harboured unresolved anger issues, yet too predictable to be the suspect? For those who like to solve a whodunnit, this one’s surely up for grabs, and we guarantee you will not know who did it, unless you read a spoiler online.
To juggle a cast with multiple characters, each character with a backstory, was a feat indeed. And the director played his A-Game here. The narrative went beyond the main characters to deliver backstories hidden inside characters; Preeti Kohli, Daljit, Saqib, Naved and Saleem, and others in the neighbourhood. Every character added just the right mix of intrigue, even those that didn’t catch the eye, like Bhamra’s dad, who appeared momentarily, yet left impact.
The Buckingham Murders is reminiscent of British crime thrillers where locations familiar to residents are depicted with a life-like lens and storytelling. The narrative was well-paced featuring a minimalistic, grey-toned frame in keeping with the mood of the story. Yet the frames and color-grading were cleverly devised to draw us into the story, not deter from it. Characters’ lives have a real life bite to them and injecting relatability to the desi community only served to add punch and emotion in seeking out the murderer of a child we didn’t even know, or get time to bond with – what a successful crime thriller gets right every time.
If the pacing of the narrative was a bit slow on the onset, it seemed to pick up the moment Jass reached her new transfer and was assigned the case. The story pulled one in and before you could call murder, it picked up again midway as Jass refused to take things at face value – all is not what it seems in a murder mystery and many docuseries addicts will tell you that’s how real life plays out too.
To wrap it up, The Buckingham Murders scores a solid 3.5 stars out of 5 in a crime thriller universe where dark, bleak November adds to the feels. So keep that coffee brewing or top it off with some hot cocoa and marshmallows coz’ that’s all the sugar you’ll get in this far from sugary, pre-Christmas winter treat. Settle in for a watch this weekend!
The Buckingham Murders is directed by Hansal Mehta. It is written by Aseem Arrora, Taghav Raj Kakker, and Kashyap Kapoor. the cast features Kareena Kapoor, Ash Tandon, Ranvir Brar, Prabhleen Sandhu, Keith Allen, Kapil Redekar, Adwoa Akoto, Darren Kemp, Ruchika Jain, Assad Raja, Sarah Jane Dias, Rukku Nahar, Jonathan Nyati, Sanjeev Mehra, Rahul Sidhu, Haider Javed, Manish Gandhi, Sartaaj Kakkar and others.
