Maddock Films’ Murder Mubarak is about a murder and its investigation. A young gym trainer is murdered. The case is being investigated by ACP Bhavani Singh (Pankaj Tripathi). The suspects are several people, most of them either members of a prestigious club or connected with the club in some way or the other.
The story is also about a love affair gone wrong. Bambi Todi (Sara Ali Khan) is in love with a young middle-class man but being very status-conscious, she decides against marrying him. Instead she marries a rich guy. Soon, the rich guy is killed in an accident.
The film is based on Anuja Chauhan’s book, Club You To Death. Gazal Dhaliwal and Suprotim Sengupta’s story and screenplay are fairly interesting but there are portions in which the drama gets confusing and sometimes, boring too. Some scenes appear unconvincing. The light moments do serve as a welcome relief to ease the tension of the murder investigations. The duo’s dialogues are good.
Pankaj Tripathi performs ably as investigating police officer ACP Bhavani Singh. He does justice to his role. Sara Ali Khan is good in the role of Bambi Todi. Vijay Varma lives the role of Kaashi/Akash Dogra. He is very natural. Dimple Kapadia lends lovely support as Cookie Katoch. Karisma Kapoor, as Shehnaz Noorani, looks like the diva she plays and acts ably. Sanjay Kapoor is very good in the role of Rannvijay Singh. Tisca Chopra, as Roshni Batra, shines with an excellent performance. Deven Bhojani is wonderful as club manager Devendra Bhatti. Brijendra Kala has his moments as Guppie Ram. Aashim Gulati is good as Leo Matthews. Priyank Tiwari plays sub-inspector Padam Kumar with conviction. Suhail Nayyar is alright as Yash Batra. Grusha Kapoor lends extraordinary support in the role of Mala Dogra. Purnendu Bhattacharya is nice as Brigadier Balbir Dogra. Padmini Sardesai (as grandmother Dogra) is endearing. Tara Alisha Berry gives a good account of herself as Ganga. Hardeep Gupta (as Bambi’s mother) and Hitesh Sejpal (as Bambi’s father) fit the bill. Varun Mitra is okay as Anshul. Kiara Sadh (as the little girl), Amaara Sangam (as Minu Dimri), Rajat Malhotra (as the chef), Nitish Kapoor (as the sous chef), Suhaas Ahuja (as the staff manager), Manoj Rabindernath Dutt (as the old waiter), Beila Gupta (as Anshul’s mother), Trilochan Kalra (as Anshul’s father), Varsha Arora (as Ira, daughter of Shehnaz Noorani), Gurkeet Kaur (as Shahana, daughter of Shehnaz Noorani), Himanshu Luthra (as the owner of the banged car), Ranjit Deval (as the club doctor), Neerja Saidawat (as security operator Ram Palat), Srikant Maski (as Theju), Shubham Gupta (as the cop), Paalin Kabak (as Thinsuk), Hardika Sharma (as young Bambi), Abeer Jain (as young Kaashi), Bobby Singh (as minister Gagan Ruia), Balakrishnan Natarajan (as police chief commissioner Samir Faruqui), Gurpreet Kaur (as Leo’s landlady), Nikhil Khurana (as warden Rakesh Saldanah), Homi Adajania (as the director on set), Girish Jain (as the head guy on the film set), Rohit Tanan (as the DOP on the film set), Jacob Binu (as Dr. Krishnan), Rehan Gulam Nabi Shaikh (as the drug dealer) and Adesh Raparia (as Katoch Sahab) do as desired.
Homi Adajania’s direction is fairly good. Sachin-Jigar’s music is alright while their background score is effective. Priya Saraiya does a fine job of the lyrics. Linesh Desai’s cinematography is wonderful. Amritpal Singh’s action and stunt scenes are quite thrilling. Production designing (by Bindiya Chhabria and Arvind Ashok Kumar) and art direction (by Ramesh Yadav and Hemlal Mahto) are of a good standard. Akshara Prabhakar’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Murder Mubarak is an average entertainer. Two big plus points are its formidable star cast and its catchy title.
Released on 15-3-’24 on Netflix.