The Buckingham Murders—this title gives you an idea that it might be a film on a series of murders. But it's not that kind of film. Yes, there are murders, more than one, but not the kind of series or chain one may or may not expect from the title. Kareena Kapoor's crime thriller is more of an intense drama of a grieving and panicking woman than a smart detective. Though she is smart, the situations, or rather the presentation of the situations, don't let her look smart on the big screen. The biggest problem with the film is that it fails to find one single motive that is bound to take the script ahead and make it meaningful. I asked myself, What was it actually? A crime drama, a thriller, a mystery, or a series of dysfunctional characters?
Set in Buckinghamshire, the film begins with a British-Indian detective, Jasmeet Bhamra (Kareena Kapoor), who has recently lost her child. The culprit surrenders and reveals that he did not want to kill the child and that it was a mistake. Panicked and tensed, Jas still tries to find a new life with her tricky job. Sooner than expected, she is assigned the case of a murdered 10-year-old child in Buckinghamshire, which she primarily denies but has no choice. As she delves into the case and finds something is odd, she begins to realize that it is not just a regular murder case and there is more to it than what meets the eye. Will she be able to save an innocent soul from the sentence and get the hold of a real murderer?
Aseem Arrora writes a script that lacks novelty, and you feel like you're watching some British or American crime drama series. It is so repetitive even for Bollywood. Kareena was herself a part of Talaash (2012), where Aamir Khan played a similar cop, going through panicked moments and is always tensed. The hallucinations and all that stuff is not here, so thank God, but there are other elements, such as dysfunctional and despicable characters, that you just can't stand for. The "gay" angle has become such a big crap nowadays that people hate it, especially when the context of the film hasn't got anything to do with it. The extramarital affair or an unsatisfied wife's sexual affair are two more such things that you don't want to see, and The Buckingham Murders has all these three things that force you to dislike this film. And all these three things, along with another filthy thing like "drugs," are responsible for the murder, or murders. How can I like it then?
The performances work as a saving grace here, but I still think Kareena Kapoor could have done much better or deserved much better. Performances like Crew and The Buckingham Murders can never stand against the likes of Good Newz, Jaane Jaan, or her other notable works from the past. She looks exhausted and uninterested throughout the film, and that's one of the major reasons why you, as a viewer, don't really find the narrative interesting. Ranveer Brar and Keith Allen literally annoy you with their immature characters, while Ash Tandon and Kapil Redelar were somewhat decent. Prabhleen Sandhu looks good in a few scenes, Jonathan Nyati, Dareen Kemp, and Charles Craddock are watchable with their British accents, and the rest of the supporting cast is below par.
The Buckingham Murders has 70–75% dialogues in English, and 90% of them are in British accent. Needless to say that this film is not made for the Indian masses and the regular Hindi cinema watchers. It restricts itself to the urban centers, and even those audiences won't be happy with the overall outcome. The cinematography and sound design are fine, but the production design was poor. The screenplay is weak and has many useless scenes that Amitesh Mukherjee should have removed as an editor. And why the film is so slow brother? Hansal Mehta has been inconsistent over the years, but he has left a mark with classics like Shahid and Aligarh. Nowadays, he seems to have lost something, and The Buckingham Murders is another prime example of it. Please come back, sir; we need more Shahid and Aligarh from you, not Faraaz, Chhalaang, and The Buckingham Murders.
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