Review: Cluttered screenplay & underwhelming execution makes 'The Great Indian Murder' a tough long watch

Based on the novel 'Six Suspects' by Vikas Swarup, The Great Indian Murder begins with a backstory of the 'victim' in place - Vikram aka Vicky Rai (played by Jatin Goswami). However, in essence the 9 episode long series is about how Rai is killed at a party which ironically was arranged in order to celebrate his acquittal from a case. Following this, six suspects are locked in from the party - which include a waiter named Munna, a member of the ancient tribe Eketi, a hotshot Bollywood actress Shabnam, a politician with split personalities Mohan Kumar, an American tourist infatuated with the actress and a welfare officer with a hidden motive.

The Great Indian Murder attempts to unravel as to who killed Vicky Rai after all as CBI officer Suraj Yadav (Pratik Gandhi) and police officer Sudha Bharadwaj (Richa Chadha) are made incharge of the investigation. Having seen all nine episodes, here's what I thought about it-

The Good

The concept of back-and-forth storytelling can act as a double-edged sword with a show and the same happens here. It is unfortunate there is more bad than good but the completion of a few arcs are rather satisfactory and that happens due to this format of storytelling. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia doesn't let you breathe too much and keeps you on the hook where he even challenges as to how much you remember from a scene you probably would have seen multiple episodes ago. Only the character of Munna (Shashank Arora) gets a full satisfactory arc which goes forward and backwards innumerable times.

There are multiple instances in the show where you might lose your interest entirely but credit to the director and the makers to put in some scenes that revive your attention, albeit temporarily. For instance, after the episodes involving Eketi and Ashok Rajput (Sharib Hashmi) run too long and get too boring, you are brought back into the show with the heartening scenes between Sudha and her colleague Manjot Singh (Guneet Singh) and even the family troubles that Sudha has been facing involving her brother and husband. These aren't entirely necessary but give a good break from the rather boring and stretched arc of a particular suspect.

The Not-So-Good

The Great Indian Murder can possibly be termed to be the most cluttered show I have ever seen in recent times. As mentioned above, in an attempt to indulge in back-and-forth storytelling, the show becomes so scattered and hence after a point, you don't quite care. The suspects are obviously given enough screen time to try and establish interest but it is done in such a complicated manner that you don't feel for any of them as a viewer except Munna and a tad bit for Eketi.

The now recurring but seemingly constant problem with web series has been the perplexing need to have over 8 episodes with long runtimes. With The Great Indian Murder, we are talking about 9 episodes with an average runtime of 40+ minutes that seem terribly long and incredibly boring on multiple instances. There are literally 3 or 4 episodes focused on multiple backstories which feel so uninteresting even more so because you're barely invested in those characters.

The Performances

Again, with such an ensemble cast you would expect good acts and in a way, that seems to be the only saving grace here. Pratik Gandhi, the breakout star from Scam 1992 probably has the worst written character but the actor tries his absolute best to input as much life as he can where he does a good job. Fine performances by Ashutosh Rana, Guneet Singh and Shashank Arora also deserve mentions. But the brightest sparks in the show got to be the veteran Raghubir Yadav, who gets the most 'colorful' and interesting role to play doing a stellar job; and  who also can be termed as the find of the show in the form of Jatin Goswami as the devious Vicky Rai, who is also the murder victim. His performance is absolutely fantastic and makes up a tad bit for as underwhelming as the show is.

The Verdict

With an extremely cluttered screenplay, uninteresting storyline, underwhelming climax and just a few decent performances, there isn't enough to make The Great Indian Murder a worthy watch. 

Rating - *1/2 (1.5/5)