Like there is no perfect murder, there is no perfect way to solve one. A gripping investigative thriller is one in which the murderer may be caught, but the resolution is open-ended enough to leave some niggling questions in the viewer’s mind, enabling him to draw his own conclusions and craft alternative scenarios and solutions.

Charlie Chopra & The Mystery of Solang Valley, a six-episode whodunit series now streaming on SonyLIV, falters on this front. Taking a considerably long time to get to the perpetrator, the series attempts to throw in a curveball at the end, but because the viewer has already spent quite a bit of time with the story, even after partly losing one’s initial investment in it, the resolution, as well as the reveal, seems too tame, and almost predictable, to make an impact.

This is a bit of a surprise considering that Charlie Chopra & The Mystery of Solang Valley has quite a bit going for it. First, it’s from Vishal Bhardwaj, the master storyteller with a special knack for adapting and contextualising, as evidenced by his much-lauded Shakespearean adaptations for the big screen. Second, it’s based on Agatha Christie’s The Sittaford Mystery, a rather compelling whodunit in the best tradition of the writer’s detective fiction books. Third, it boasts an enviable ensemble cast, the kind that only an auteur like Bhardwaj can perhaps get together. Finally, the location itself — the pristine yet secretive snow-covered climes of Manali and Solang Valley — acts as an effective canvas for this story of murder and misdeeds.

We also have a rarity here, the kind that is not seen easily on Indian screens. Charlie Chopra is led by a female detective, named eponymously after the show. In many ways, Charlie, an amateur sleuth who stumbles upon the case in question after her boyfriend (Jimmy, played by Vivaan Shah) is implicated in the murder of his uncle (Gulshan Grover as Brigadier Rawat gets bumped off right in the beginning, but keeps popping up in flashback sequences). Charlie, played by the delightfully versatile Wamiqa Gabbi, gets down to work, initially at loggerheads with a local reporter (played by Priyanshu Painyuli) and then joins forces with him.

Charlie’s quick thinking, ability to observe and her detective genes — her mom was a detective too (watch out for that cameo) — help her peel off the layers one by one, despite many a stumbling block that comes her way. However, the huge stretches of nothingness in between — with a red herring thrown in here and there, but with not much else happening by way of plot or plot twist — means that Charlie Chopra (written by the team of Bhardwaj, Jyotsna Hariharan and Anjum Rajabali) ends up being a bit of a bore.

Wamiqa’s winning screen presence and the quirks that Charlie is invested with — including her consistent Fleabag-inspired breaking-the-fourth-wall commentary which partly works and partly grates — give the series much of its pull and punch, but it’s rather surprising that Bhardwaj sacrifices his goldmine of a cast in order to give his protagonist more screen time.

As a result, actors like Paoli Dam, Chandan Roy Sanyal, and even Bhardwaj regular Naseeruddin Shah have scarcely much to do, their characters remaining sketchy and their backstories virtually unexplored. It’s only Lara Dutta Bhupathi — playing a Lucknowi singer with a dark past who finds a safe haven in Solang Valley, along with her daughter — who is given some sort of a back story. Among the rest of the cast, Neena Gupta and Imaaduddin Shah get some sort of scope.

Charlie Chopra & The Mystery of Solang Valley, at least going by its initial beats, could have been a worthy addition to the canon of detective fiction and the kick-off to a female sleuth finding her footing with every new adventure. We just hope that Charlie’s next outing, if and when it happens, isn’t as big a misfire.
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