MUMBAI: There's been no dearth of solid whodunit thrillers in Hindi cinema. So, where does Director Homi Adajania's new Netflix entry, Murder Mubarak, stand among the pantheon of classics, including Gumnaam, Khel Khel Mein, Khiladi, Gupt, Ittefaq (1969), Teesri Manzil, Samay, Kaun, and so on...? Suffice it to say that it holds its head high among them to the point that it may just be included among them in years to come.

Inserted in a posh Delhi club, the plot neither wastes much time in revealing the slain victim nor its suspects, assembling a pedigree cast, which reads Karisma Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Vijay Varma, Dimple Kapadia, Suhail Nayyar, Tisca Chopra, and Sanjay Kapoor. As expected though, and as good as most of the aforementioned names are barring one or two, it's chief investigator ACP Bhavani Singh, played with joie de vivre by Pankaj Tripathi, who steals the show hook, line, and sinker.

There isn't much to complain about here as Director Homi Adajania, and his writers, Gazal Dhaliwal and Suprotim Sengupta, move the pieces on their winding chessboard with assured hands, making all the right moves at the right time, and revealing their big plays and dropping their important twists at the opportune moments.

Things might become a tad predictable toward the climax and tad stretched, too, but you're having such a gala time by then that you really don't mind wrapping things up with a bow. It also helps that whenever the plot gets skewed a bit, Linesh Desai's camerawork and Sachin–Jigar's music ensure that your attention never wavers.

To sum things up, Murder Mubarak makes for the perfect Netflix and Chill weekend night, chock-full to the brim with suspense, twists, and interesting characters.

4/5 stars