The Perfect Murder
       
Director: Zafar Hai
Year: 1988
Rating: 6.0
Before sitting down to watch this Merchant-Ivory production, I ordered a lunch box - or dabbas - a small tray of Indian food with rice, buttered chicken, onions and a puri. You may have seen something like this in the Indian film Lunchbox. Except in this case, they are plastic, not metal trays and are not returned afterwards. Only then was I ready to watch this mystery in Bombay based on a novel by an Englishman (H. R. F. Keating) who had never been to India. In fact, Keating wrote a series of 26 mysteries with Inspector Ghosh on the case. At some point, Air India offered him a free ticket and he went for a few weeks. My guess is that it was like nothing that he imagined. Because no one can be ready for India. It is too big, too varied, too hot, too rainy, too dirty, too fabulous to be ready. Part of the film makes fun of a Westerner who comes to India and doesn't understand a thing.



There isn't much of a mystery here - nor even a murder - the Perfect in the title is the name of the man who is assaulted. Inspector Ghosh is played by one of India's most respected actors, Naseeruddin Shah, who has successfully gone back and forth between Bollywood and what is termed Parallel Cinema (no music) - as well as the rare foray into the West - Nemo in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Ghosh is a bit of a comical character messing up a few arrests in a diamond smuggling investigation. He is assigned to as the boss calls it, the Perfect Murder. The private secretary of the very wealthy Lalla Heera Lal has been conked over the head in the house of Mr. Lal. Lal is played by none other than Amjad Khan - a legendary villain in Bollywood after Sholay. By 1988 he has grown to the size of a small tent. His character here charmingly rhymes every last word in an English sentence. Ghosh quickly learns that there is no murder and that when told it was a perfect murder, it was the name of the man.



None of the family - Madhur Jaffrey, Dalip Tahil, Sakina Jaffrey - will answer any question from Ghosh and there is nothing he can do about it because they are untouchable due to their high status. A police officer Axel from Sweden is put with Ghosh - played by Stellan Skarsgård - turning it into a buddy cop film. There is no drama here - really a light comedy that pokes fun at class, police bureaucracy, marriage, cultural differences - and Ghosh solves it as much by accident than smarts. One small curious aspect is that though the Lal family shows no respect towards Ghosh, they assume Axel is a great criminologist sent from Sweden. In fact, his boss and girlfriend is just trying to get rid of him.



The director is Zafar Hai and he makes great use of the Indian streets and spectacle. One cute scene has Ghosh chasing a suspect into a film poster painting shop with some massive posters. Ghosh's interplay with his wife is played for amusement as well as Axel tells Ghosh that he loves the gentle demur Hindi wives - little does he know as Ghosh is henpecked from the moment he gets home. The wife is played by his real life wife, Ratna Pathak Shah - and small parts are given to Johnny Walker, one of Bollywood's most endearing and enduring comics and an actress is played by Archana Puran Singh who was in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and many others. I would say someone with some familiarity with Indian cinema will appreciate this more than those who don't.  And have a plate of Indian food in front of you if you do.