The Buckingham Murders Review: Kareena Kapoor Stands Out In This Lacklustre Crime Thriller!
The Buckingham Murders is directed by Hansal Mehta. Here's our review.
2.5 / 5
As someone who is a sucker for gritty crime thrillers, the trailer of Kareena Kapoor starrer The Buckingham Murders piqued my interest. And given that this film is directed by Hansal Mehta, it was the icing on the cake I was too excited to binge on. Produced by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms, The Buckingham Murders also marks Bebo’s production debut. Alongside her, Ranveer Brar and Keith Allen also pivotal roles in the film. Oh well, the question remains, did it live up to the hype and expectations that it served with the trailer? Not entirely, but Kareena Kapoor delivers an impactful performance in this film hampered by a weak script. Read on because it has no spoilers.
Plot
Set in London, Kareena Kapoor Khan plays a British Indian detective Jasmeet Bhamra. The film begins with a culprit on trial in court charged with the murder of Jasmeet’s 10-year-old child. In an attempt to move on from the traumatic events, Jasmeet moves to Buckinghamshire where she is assigned a missing boy’s case. The grieving mother in Jasmeet refuses to take up the case but despite the resistance, she is asked to join the investigation.
Initially, Jasmeet Bhamra shows little to no interest in looking for Daljit Kaur’s (Ranveer Brar) and Preeti Kohli’s (Prabhleen Sandhu) son because she is struggling with the loss of her child. However, the case turns ugly when the boy is found dead, and a Muslim boy is taken into custody as the prime accused. Jasmeet Bhamra suspects big loopholes in the case and flags them to her superior.
With a strong belief in not letting an innocent suffer the punishment solely based on his religious and personal conflict, Jasmeet takes the lead and finds the real culprit behind it.
Positive
Performance
The only driving force behind this crime thriller is Kareena Kapoor Khan as Jasmeet Bhamra. The actor delivers an impactful and near-perfect performance. The raw Kareena Kapoor was at her best in showcasing the miseries of a young woman whose life suddenly turns upside down after the death of her son but is equally impressive in displaying the sturdiness of a detective determined to stop a grave injustice.
In some scenes, the actor’s nuanced portrayal of emotions like sadness, anger and frustration proves she’s gotten into the skin of her character. Kareena Kapoor hits the ball out of the park in every frame, especially the closeup shots when she beautifully holds an expressionless look on her face without overdoing it or making it look like she’s lost in her thoughts. There are scenes when she is sassy and savage. While in some, she goes for a little action, and that made me jump out of my seat.
Ranveer Brar as the misogynist and self-centric angry man Daljit Kaur was convincing in his performance. He successfully made me hate his character and I was as angry at him in the end just as Jasmeet Bhamra!
Negatives
A Weak Thriller
A weak and blunt script flaws Hansal Mehta’s The Buckingham Murders. What starts with being a slow and promising crime thriller, absolutely misses to hit the mark by the second half. While Kareena Kapoor has done a fab job playing Jasmeet Bhamra, her character also struggles because of the lazy writing.
The performance was impactful but at the same time, I found it difficult to sympathise with her grief as there was hardly any background context given about Jasmeet Bhamra’s past life or even the mother-son relationship.
The story tries too hard to become unpredictable with an overdose of twists in the second half when Jasmeet unfolds the crime. Till the end of the film, the suspense is intact, however, the audience is given very little scope to find it shocking. At some points, the plot felt forced and overdramatic which in turn took away the thrill of watching this film.
There is an emotional father-daughter conversation that happens between Jasmeet and her dad, but there is hardly any impact of the scene because it is so abrupt and also does not add any kind of development to the story or her character.
The Buckingham Murders also puts efforts into highlighting the preconceived notions and hatred towards a particular religion but fails to do justice with this subplot. For me, it was yet another cliched attempt to add unwarranted drama to the plot.
Pace
The film’s duration is only 1 hour 50 minutes, yet it unravels very slowly. And the disappointing part is when you do not end up getting any shockers instead you watch a mystery that gets messier and tangled as it unfolds.
In an attempt to touch upon issues like prejudice against s*xual identity, oppression of women by NRIs, hatred towards a particular community and drug addiction among youths, the film hardly manages to address these issues impactfully.
Direction
Well, NGL, I had quite high expectations since this film was a Hansal Mehta directorial. However, I was anything but happy with how the film turned out to be. The storytelling was dull and lacked energy. It was not consistent, and many times the seriousness of the plot was broken with the addition of dramatic and emotional scenes (It would have made sense if they sparked empathy in me or added value to any character’s arc, but neither of that happens).
The Buckingham Murders has to be one of his most underwhelming projects to date because the film aspired to be a gritty crime thriller, yet boils down to being just a not-so-engaging whodunnit.
Background Score
The background score for The Buckingham Murders was very annoying. The Indian classical music as the background score was loud, over the top and screechy to the point where I had to shut my ears. It was quite distracting to watch the visuals with such an overpowering BGM.
Verdict: Kareena Kapoor Shines In This Underwhelming Crime Thriller
Hansal Mehta’s The Buckingham Murders becomes watchable only because of Kareena Kapoor’s impressive and strong performance as detective Jasmeet Bhamra. The performances in this film by Ranveer Brar, Keith Allen (senior detective) and other supporting cast are quite decent.
The running time is only 1 hour 50 minutes. However, this crime thriller does not become as engaging as we would like it to be. The plot twists in the film are so loosely connected that it fails to keep you on the edge of your seat. The storytelling is also poorly executed.
The Buckingham Murders is also partly in English as it is set in London. It deals with some taboo topics like LBGTQ phobia, communal disharmony in London, and lack of equal respect for women, but the weak and shallow writing overshadows the impact of these topics.
However, you can go and watch this movie to see Kareena Kapoor Khan’s finesse as an actor because you can never get enough of watching Bebo sprinkle her magic on the big screen.
First Published: September 13, 2024 1:03 PM
