Mandala Murders: Mystery deepens but a shallow effort
The series opens in 1952. Villagers are set to burn what they are led to believe is an abode of witches. What these women, led by the feisty Shriya Pilgaonkar (in a cameo), are doing is another point of interest. Undeniably, the very premise is intriguing, suspenseful and supernatural.
Cut to the present day. Rhea Thomas (Vaani Kapoor) is a CIB (yes, the CBI derivative) detective assigned to crack the case and sent to Charandaspur, the epicentre of mystery and murder. ‘Gullak’ fame Vaibhav Raj Gupta as Vikram Singh is a cop suspended from duty. He is back in this quaint place, which happens to be his hometown and where his mother went missing decades ago. Both find themselves in the midst of a series of bizarre murders and get together to unravel the truth behind the shocking deaths.
In the latest Netflix series ‘Mandala Murders’, superstition, magic, miracle and horror (science too) collide. The very first body, of a photographer uncovering a political scam, is discovered with the torso missing. Two more have their arms undone. At one level, the series unfolds like a police procedural, at another it’s political intrigue at its vilest best. But since at the heart of the series is some unnatural phenomenon, the mystery will not be easy to unfold, and conventional answers won’t apply. Who is killing and why, the mystery deepens.
Help is at hand by way of Jameel Khan, who prefers to call himself Jimmy. Like the lead characters in the film, he too has history that goes back in time. With the help of his mandala logic, he can not only decode why the killer is aiming for certain people, but also foretell who will be the next target.
The episode concerning Shastri (Raghubir Yadav is sterling even in a small part) and his wife Kalinidi, in particular, is chilling and the atmospherics are on point.
Even otherwise, in this Yash Raj Films offering, the production design does not disappoint. The small city’s Charandaspur’s forests, home to sinister happenings, are called Varuna. The city could be in UP or any place in the hinterland, but looks and smells like its ethos demands.
As more murders unfold, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, like the various parts of mandala, begin to fall in place one by one. Alas, the series comes undone especially in the last two episodes. The writing team, including one of the directors Gopi Puthran and Avinash Dwivedi, Gabe Gabriel and Chirag Garg, can be credited for an original, indigenous plot.
The mandala code and secret cult society have novel and rooted elements in place. Still, after a while, despite so many minds teaming up, it becomes nearly impossible for them to tie up the loose ends. As it is, the sacrifice of a thumb ushering in miracles is too much of a flight of imagination to make it palatable. And when the makers try to incorporate the particle physics angle, a machine invented to breathe life into the dead, credulity goes for a toss.
Had they kept things to the rise of antigod, the Aast, alone, maybe the believability quotient would have worked better. Vaani Kapoor’s Nandini angle is more forced than organic. Perhaps, when you have a Bollywood actress leading the show, there is temptation to give her more space. Vaani, making her OTT debut, is in fine form though. Not that she is the only central character here.
Surveen Chawla’s Ananya Bhardwaj, the woman with political ambitions, gets her character requirement right. She is steely and vulnerable as and when needed. Yet, ultimately, she is also sacrificed at the altar of a hurriedly stitched resolution.
We get it, not everything can be explained by science. But even in the realm of the mythical, there has to be some credible logic or an attempt to clarify things. The makers reinforce, “Some things are beyond the realm of human understanding.” But the make-believe of the otherworldly has to take us along the path of suspension of disbelief without so many interjections, characters and backstories. Here, the build-up is strong, we stay invested for the longest time until… the unexpected happens rather unconvincingly.
Finally, it’s not just Vikram who is screaming why, we too echo the same frustration. Yes, dots are joined, past and present anyway intercut the series as each epilogue concerns a different time period and character’s backstory.
Vaani’s Rhea telling us that not everything about mandala can be explained is not good enough an explanation and can’t plug the loopholes. That more will follow is evident in the eyes of Aditi Pohankar (yes, she too gets a significant part).
Watch the first season if you are ready to pay the keemat — which in this case is not just time for eight episodes, but also a denouement which leaves one far less satisfied than the clickbait of a mystery wrapped in mythical thought ought to.
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