‘Black White & Gray’ review: A gripping dissection of the true crime genre

Pushkar Mahabal, the director of the terrifying thriller Welcome Home, turns his unsparing gaze on the true crime genre for his new project. The Sony LIV series Black, White & Gray – Love Kills is a meta-fiction narrative with two intertwined strands: a mockumentary about a crime that is supposed to be real, and the restaging of the crime.

A young man from a working-class background is in hiding after being accused of four murders. Two years after this headline-grabbing case, an unseen filmmaker is meeting people who knew the victims.

The filmmaker reveals the rabbit in his hat: he has an interview with the alleged perpetrator (Hardik Soni), who not only denies his involvement but also provides an entirely different sequence of events.

On a parallel track, actors recreate the murder trail. The dramatisation identifies the principal characters as the Girl (Palak Jaiswal) and the Boy (Mayur More). Only the individuals who feature in the documentary are named, such as the driver Sunny (Hakkim Shahjahan) and the police officer Chauhan (Tigmanshu Dhulia).

The Girl is the daughter of a politician (Anant Jog); the Boy is the son of the politician’s driver (Jairoop Jeevan). Separated by economic class, social status and possibly caste, the Girl and the Boy nevertheless fall for each...

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