Mrs Serial Killer
Director: Shirish Kunder
Actors: Manoj Bajpayee, Jacqueline Fernandes, Mohit Raina, Darshan Jariwala, Zayn Marie Khan
At one point in Mrs Serial Killer a character smirks in middle of a tense situation, and his tormenter asks him–what’s the joke? Well to answer that question on his behalf, it is the entire film, from its execution to its pathetic performances to its ill-developed sequences.
Probably wasting our precious 2-hours even in this lockdown time was the joke that Netflix pulled on us. If you are patient enough to reach this sequence in question, you will know…
What’s it about
For the uninitiated, the film follows the story of a doting wife, who decides to commit a gruesome murder in order to absolve her husband from serial murder charges.
Sona Mukhejee and Mrityunjoy Mukherjee are happily married and are in a happy phase of their life as they are expecting a child. All hell breaks loose when Mrityunjoy, who’s a gynecologist, gets arrested by police after they recover dead bodies of six pregnant young women brutally killed, and their embryos taken out of their bodies and stored in jars, from his property. All evidences are against him and Sona is left with no choice but to commit this ghastly act to save her husband.
What’s wrong with the film? EVERYTHING
The comedy begins first scene onwards–the prologue. Sona Mukherjee (Jacqueline Fernandes), the aspiring Mrs Serial Killer, is ready to commit the murder, serial killer style. Talking to a non-existent person is supposed to add to the chill. What should ideally have been the most nail-biting scene of the film is reduced to a comical scene where the victim’s (Zayn Marie Khan) acting stands apart instead as she gives a psycho-stare to our dearest Sona with chikni kalaiyan but zero acting chops.
We heave a sigh of relief with Manoj Bajpayee’s (Mrityunjoy Mukherjee) entry as the oh-so-cool and loving hubby who talks to wifie Sona darling via video call from airport. He’s not the insecure types and when his wife tells him there is another guy with her in the room, all he’s concerned about is her safety.
As your progress into the film, you realize that what you have signed up for will put you in more trouble than the lead pair themselves.
Mrs Serial Killer with its interesting plotline creates expectation of a gritty thriller with decent performances and brilliant flow. What it turns out to be is a mix of bad acting, worse than expected twists and turns and the climax that leaves you horrified at the prospect of having another part of this dud of a movie.
Shirish Kunder did it again
Shirish Kunder, director of Jaan-E-Man and Joker, proves it yet again that he is capable of outdoing himself in spoiling even the most riveting of plotlines into disaster of a film.
Coming from an editing background and films like Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke, Main Hoon Na, Socha Na Tha, Matrubhoomi, Champion, Calcutta Mail, Na Tum Jaano Naa Hum to his credit, Kunder has directed four projects in total—Jaan-E-Man, Joke, Kriti (a short film), and Mrs Serial Killer, his latest one.
Out of these four, only Kriti won critical applause. The 19-minute movie has some riveting performances by Radhika Apte, Manoj Bajpayee and almost everything is perfect about it from background score, to smooth storytelling and interesting twists and turns.
If I may say so, Mrs Serial Killer is a very bad version of Kriti. The graph of Manoj’s character in Kriti is similar to the one he plays in Mrs Serial Killer—a harmless person who has a hidden side to him. Telling more than that will spoil your fun (just kidding) of watching Mrs Serial Killer.
The latest Netflix movie if well-executed could have been an interesting psychological thriller with Jacqueline getting the role of her lifetime. But that was not to be.
Performances: Pathetic
Talking about performances, Jacqueline was so bad that her performance in Murder 2 seems better in comparison. Her killer looks are unmatched by her soulless performance. She tries too hard to add intensity, oomph, layers to her character, but fails. Her screams, look of horror in her face, her tears all look so imposed that you want to look away and imagine a better actress in place of her doing those scenes.
Mohit Raina in his few scenes is able to leave a mark with his character of Inspector Imran Shahid. But even he could not save the film.
Manoj Bajpayee starts off well with his character of a bhola-bhaala caring husband, but is reduced to being the caricature of his Kriti character later on in a less than ordinary performance. But considering his was the best performance in the film, you can imagine the quality of other portrayals which I feel are not worth talking about.
TLI verdict
Mrs Serial Killer could at best be an interesting comic book that many might have read in their childhood like Ek Katora Khoon or Paagal Kaatilon Ki Toli. But making it into a Netflix Indian original is utter injustice to the filmmakers who are trying hard to add quality content to the global streaming platform.