A lot has been written and said about the emotive power of Fahadh Faasil's eyes. Too little has been documented about how Kareena Kapoor Khan effectively uses her eyes to convey a myriad emotions. They can be downcast, revealing debilitating grief of the kind that her character experiences in her latest release, The Buckingham Murders. They can be probing and questioning, carefully measuring every word spoken and every glance exchanged. We get to see that in this film as Kareena embraces the part of a cop pushing herself to the edge to solve a murder. They can be angry, very angry like her Jasmeet Bhamra is at many points in The Buckingham Murders as she uncovers the ugly truth, bit by bit. And it is when they combine grief, anger and a million questions all at once does Kareena reach the pinnacle of her craft, making The Buckingham Murders pop out of the screen.
Directed by Hansal Mehta, this is the latest in the small-town murder mystery, a growing sub-genre in cinema. In India, it is still taking baby steps. That Kareena has put her weight behind the film as a debutant producer points to the possibility of seeing more such films in the future. Kareena herself featured in one recently — Sujoy Ghosh's Jaane Jaan, set in misty and mysterious Kalimpong.
The Buckingham Murders has a distinct Mare of Easttown look and feel. But it is to her credit that Kareena plays it very differently from how Kate Winslet's disgruntled but determined cop did it in that extremely watchable HBO series.
When we first meet Jasmeet — Jass for short — she is a single mother grieving the death of her son in a public shootout. Even though the court puts away the gunman for life, Jass finds no closure. She opts for a transfer to the town of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire — one which comes with a sizeable Asian population — and right on her first day, Jass finds herself in the middle of a missing persons case. That changes into a murder investigation overnight, and though her superior — a surly cop called Hardik 'Hardy' Patel (Ash Tandon) who adopts a blow hot-blooded cold attitude with Jass — makes an arrest and declares it an open-and-shut case, Jass's gut instinct tells her there is more to it. With time, she stumbles upon one twist after another, hellbent on solving this quagmire of a case even as she battles her personal demons.
Even though the plot gets extremely dense with multiple suspects and multiple motives, The Buckingham Murders benefits from its minimalistic tone and treatment. That also extends to Kareena's look and demeanour, with the actor going make-up free to bare the vulnerability and naked emotions of the woman (and more so, the mother) she plays. The only complaint is regarding the loud background score, which, instead of accentuating what plays out on screen only serves to heavily reinforce it. This is a malady that Hindi cinema hasn't found a remedy to. Or maybe doesn't want to.
The Buckingham Murders is Mehta's first murder mystery as director. The filmmaker goes through the beats well, despite some loopholes here and there. He also brings in his distinctive voice, setting his film against the background of the communal clashes that took place in Leicester in 2022 following the India-Pakistan Asia cricket cup face-off. There is also a tenderly filmed LGBTQ angle. After all, Aligarh, one of the most sensitive films on same-sex relationships in recent times, belongs to Mehta. By imbuing the film with social and political context, the filmmaker manages to make it much more than a mere police procedural and murder mystery.
The Buckingham Murders is also extremely nuanced in its examination of grief and the challenges it comes with. But this is also a film where the ultimate payoff isn't very satisfactory. The reveal of the culprit may catch you off-guard but what follows isn't strong enough to sustain it. Nevertheless, it benefits from Kareena's scenery-chewing performance and strong support from its ensemble cast, especially Ranveer Brar and Prabhleen Sandhu.
