๐ ๐๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฐ: ๐๐ฑ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐ง๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐๐-๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ฌ.
Led by Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub, the ensemble cast keeps you invested in what these characters are doing and what the narrative is making them do
โA Simple Murderโ is such a deceptive title for a show that is anything but simple. Yes, since the title has it, thereโs a murder, there are contract killers involved, thereโs an investigation, thereโs unrequited love, betrayal, there are various subplots, themes that are explored, but thereโs nothing which suggests that anything is simple.
Thereโs a middle-class man, trying hard to get an investor on board for his start-up, trying hard to keep his marriage as his wife is cheating on him. His wife wants to sleep on a bed full of money and her ultimate goal is to achieve just that goal and nothing else.
In flashbacks, we see that Manish wanted to invest in the relationship and somehow wanted it to mean and last beyond just money, which Richa (Priya Anand) is after and suggests that she will even leave him after she gets what she wanted.
The domino effect in many ways becomes a central plot point to the turn of events for more than one time in the show. A mouse, the domino effect not just of things and events but relationships, becomes the usual trope of this whole 7-episode show, which in the end feels two-episode too many.
But till then, itโs an entertaining as well as an interesting watch.
One day, Manish gets a call from an investor. The investing firmโs shop name banner is broken, so kept on the side outside some other shop. Manish (Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub), enters the wrong shop, but to his surprise, he gets an amount of INR 5 Lakhs, a gun and a target.
That episode with the Pandit kicks off a terrific ride that has interestingly flawed characters, which are played by extremely efficient and very fine actors.
The confusion of the address and the targetโs hair leads Manish to kill the other person, whom he wasnโt supposed to and then the audience and the character meet two strangely creative characters in Santosh (Amit Sial) and Himmat (Sushant Singh), geniusly casted too.
Manish gets unwantedly entangled with Santosh and Himmat, two uncannily eccentric contract killers.
A Jat politician has hired a Pundit (Yashpal Sharma) to kill his own daughter, who is in love with Usman, a Muslim, and is on the run.
The murder beckons an investigation and we get a spectacled-poor-jokes-spitting-silly Inspector Amit Mehta (Gopal Dutt) and intelligent Sub-Inspector Pratik Mishra (Vikram Kochar), who try to look beneath the surface.
The dead bodies keep piling on, killings keep happening, one is betraying the other is betraying some other, so too many things are happening for the 30โ35 minutes runtime of each episode, but the humour and the performances especially, donโt exhaust you.
But, thereโs a thing with these kinds of genres and stories. The novelty of it remains intact when it is used as a part of the story. When they start to become the story, the USP and the tropes get repetitive and monotonous. It looked like the show was ending in the 5th episode itself and I as a viewer didnโt particularly gauge what was to come in the last two to bind the story.
The story is overwritten as it runs out of steam when the show starts to play itself in after the fun and the adventure is over. The last two episodes felt like, they were made because they didnโt want to end it so soon. So, the show suddenly takes a psychological thriller turn and you start to scratch your head as to how did that come to this and was it really needed?
The showโs strength lies in the writing. Written by Akhilesh Joshi and directed by Sachin Pathak, the show gives Zeeshan Ayyub a role where the camera was on him for the majority of it and he didnโt disappoint one bit. He is sincere and just fabulous, whether in parts where he is confused doesnโt really know what is happening with him, or where he has to support the couple and he becomes that shoulder to lean on, or where he is expressing his frustration of just keeping his marriage intact and wanting to spend his entire life with her.
Amit Sial, who has now become a veteran of the Hindi streaming scene gets another role, where he has a lot to chew on and his quirks make Santosh feel very lived-in and a character with flesh and blood. However, the scene-stealer is Sushant Singh. My memories of him have always hovered around Saavdhaan India, but here he gets a soft and slow speaking contract killer role, who speaks in shayarana andaaz and the bearded leather-jacketed Himmat is just the good-ish character, this narrative needed.
Priya Anand, famous for the Fukrey-series does her job to the gallery while being loud sometimes.
The show overall which encompasses greed, themes of inter-faith relationship at a time where laws to stop them are being enforced, honour killings, etc., doesnโt get preachy or too heavy on what it is saying or showing, but humour helps elevate this narrative and successfully delivers what it wanted to.
The series, in the end, signalled for a return and hopefully, the comedic nature of the plot remains, coz it made for an engaging watch and really well-written one. Cappuccino ki Kasam!
A Simple Murder is now streaming on Sony Liv
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