Zee Studios and Mukta Arts Ltd.’s 36 Farmhouse is a suspense thriller. An old widow, Padmini Raj Singh (Madhuri Bhatia), bequeaths all her wealth to one son, Raunak Singh (Vijay Raaz). The other two sons, Gajendra Singh (Raahul Singh) and Birendra Singh (Hetal Puniwala), would not inherit anything from her estate, as per her will. However, a lawyer, Prateek Kakkar (Gaurav Ghatnekar), comes to her bungalow and meets Raunak Singh. He tells Raunak that he needs to meet the old lady because she cannot bequeath all her property to just him but would have to instead include her other sons too. The lawyer demands to meet the lady who is present in the same bungalow. But instead of allowing him to meet her, Raunak beats him up mercilessly and, taking him to be dead, throws his body in the well in the compound of the bungalow.
The police, investigating the case of the missing lawyer, comes knocking on Raunak Singh’s door.
Meanwhile, Raunak’s niece, Antra (Barkha Singh), comes to spend some time with her maternal grandmother. Along with her comes Harry (Amol Parashar) who assists her in her costume designing business. As chance would have it, Harry’s father, Jai Prakash (Sanjay Mishra), works as a chef in the same bungalow.
Before long, the old lady’s other sons are also with her to celebrate her birthday, planned by the loving Antra. The police play the party poopers and land there right when the celebrations are going on. What is the truth about the lawyer? Was he murdered? If yes, who killed him? If not, where is he?
Subhash Ghai’s story is shockingly childish. Ditto for the screenplay penned by Mukta Story Lab (Aditi Bohra, Rutuj Sambrey, Jeevak Muntode and Sana Thakore). The story and screenplay would have us believe that an individual cannot decide whom s/he wants to bequeath all her/his property, s/he has to depend upon her/his lawyer to do so! Assuming for a moment that the old lady’s husband had, before his demise, willed that all the property be divided between the three sons, why is this fact hidden? Frankly, the drama is so sketchy and lacklustre that it is difficult to believe, the film is a Mukta Arts venture. It abounds in half-backed scenes. For instance, Raunak Singh is shown to be so strict that Antra is scared to oppose him when he fires her. But just a little later, she asks the same Raunak Singh to mind his tongue! The comedy track between Jai Prakash and the house maid, Benny (Ashwini Kalsekar), is extremely weak and, therefore, it evokes irritation rather than laughter. The suspense is so devoid of excitement that the viewer couldn’t care less who the murderer is. Actually, the person murdered is so inconsequential in the scheme of things shown that to expect that the audience would be involved in the guessing game about the killer is foolhardiness. It seems weird that the writers and script consultant Robin Bhatt overlooked such an important point about making the subject relevant before making him the focal point of the drama. Besides, would the murder of the lawyer change the legal position, if there was any? The answer is a big ‘no’. Clearly then, the story and screenplay are a rush job, scribbled without much application of mind. It’s a pity to see that the writers, ostensibly with a view to making the drama contemporary, have dropped words like ‘Coronavirus’ and ‘social distancing’ liberally and set the film in the times of the pandemic merely for this reason! That’s their idea of moving with the times!!
Dialogues, penned by Sharad Tripathi and Subhash Ghai, are ordinary.
Amol Parashar, as Harry, acts in a natural style but gets very limited scope in the main story. Barkha Singh is good as Antra. Vijay Raaz is alright as Raunak Singh. Sanjay Mishra (as chef Jai Prakash) and Ashwini Kalsekar (as maid Benny) perform quite well but their comedy is silly, and that’s putting it mildly. Madhuri Bhatia looks regal and performs ably as Padmini Raj Singh. Flora Saini leaves a fine mark as Mithika Singh. Raahul Singh is okay as Gajendra Singh. Hetal Puniwala gets very little scope as Birendra Singh. Gaurav Ghatnekar (as lawyer Prateek Kakkar), Pradeep Bajpai (as Aditya Mane), Nivedita Bhargava (as Jai Prakash’s wife, Shantishree), Ishita Deshmukh (as Laali), Pritam Kagne (as Nancy), Liza Singh (as Juhi), Anjum Rajabali (as Dr. Punawala), Bharat Chandvani (as police inspector Sadanand), Rishikesh Avhad (as police inspector Amit) and the others lend routine support.
Ram Ramesh Sharma’s direction is weak. Subhash Ghai’s music makes the songs at least hummable. His lyrics are easy on the lips but nothing more than that. Abhishek Bonthu’s background music is dull. Camerawork (by Akhilesh Shrivastava) is so-so. Rahul Mandal’s production designing is functional. Editing (by Shashank Mali and Anubhav Sarda) leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, 36 Farmhouse is a dull suspense drama which will go largely unnoticed.
Released on 21-1-’22 on Zee5.