Talvar
Director: Meghan Gulzar
Year: 2015
Duration: 132 minutes
Music: Vishal Bhardwaj
Rating: 7.5
Trans: Sword
This Bollywood film is a very interesting
Rashomon styled locked room murder mystery based on a true story that was
never solved to the satisfaction of many. It is directed by Meghan Gulzar
(daughter of the great lyricist Gulzar) after two years of researching the
true murder. At the beginning of the film, it states that though it is based
on a true story it is fictional in most regards - i.e. please don't sue us.
The film comes to no absolute conclusion as to the killer but definitely
seems to sway the audience in a certain direction. As the investigation proceeds
over a lengthy time period, the investigators change, people's stories change,
evidence is corrupted and different conclusions are arrived at. These possibilities
are played out in the minds of the investigator and on the screen. They all
seem possible. It is up to the audience to decide on their own or not and
that might be different from what the police eventually went to court with.
Every aspect of the film is well done -
some of Bollywood's top actors, the cinematography is smooth but unobtrusive,
the shift in locales and moods works and the realistic account from the police
perspective mixed in with the quasi-fictional drama. It feels like you are
watching a real police investigation come together and then unravel. The
narrative sweeps by in suspenseful fashion as they close in and then says,
not yet. It begins with the maid coming to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Tandon
(Neeraj Kabi and Konkona Sen Sharma) and their daughter Shruti (Alisha Parveen).
A solid upper middle class family with both husband and wife in the medical
profession. Mrs. Tandon comes to the door but it is locked and she can't
open it. She calls out loud for their servant Khempal but when he doesn't
answer, she phones him and it is picked up and then hung up. She calls again
and it is busy. The maid tells her just throw down your duplicate key to
me - so Mrs. Tandon goes upstairs and does so. When the maid comes in, she
hears the parents screaming - over the body of their dead fourteen-year-old
daughter in bed. Her throat slashed.
The local police take over the case and
assume the killer is the servant who has gone missing. Case cleared as far
as they are concerned. Until they find his dead body on the roof behind a
locked door. The cops arrest the husband - Honor Killing they say. But there
are too many holes in their case. Case open. CIB takes over the investigation
headed by Inspector Kumar - played by the terrific Irrfan Khan (Lunchbox,
Slumdog Millionaire, Jurassic World). He is so good in this - part Jack Webb,
part good cop, part bad cop and in a failing marriage (to Tabu in an extended
cameo). Right down to business - does everything over again - realizes the
first round of cops screwed up all the evidence and has to begin again. It
is fascinating - standard CSI procedure but with a few slaps, lie detector
tests, truth serum and internal politics in the mix. Other suspects appear.
The film follows the ending of the real case though you sense it is very
reluctant to do so.
