POPCORN REVIEWSS

Adapted from the French show La Mante and written by Nagesh Kukunoor and Rohit G Banawlikar, Mrs Deshpande starts off with a murder – something that can be considered as a good start despite the familiar tropes of the genre. A random character who is labelled as a superstar is strangled at his own home, the police arrive and kickstart the investigation. The Modus Operandi of the serial killer is eerily similar to a culprit that has been in jail for 25 years, in what ACP Arun (Priyanshu Chatterjee) terms as a ‘lucky arrest’. The culprit is none other than Mrs Deshpande (Madhuri Dixit) who wears a stoic yet intimidating expression while serving her time in prison.

Credit where due – the drama gathers momentum right from the word go, even as you are acquainted with the personality of Mrs Deshpande. You know nothing about her past except that the murders that she had committed was in the mould of a vigilante – a la (mante?) John Abraham from Satyameva Jayate 2 (2023), although less atrocious and without any jingoism. Even while being brought in to aide the investigation, Mrs Deshpande wears a chilling look without being too expressive or even twitching a muscle. She remains a perfect player for a seasoned crime, even as the writing touching upon the psychological aspects of her character – is she aiding the new serial killer too?

At the helm of the investigation remains Tejas (Siddharth Chandekar), a no-nonsense but weary cop who has trust issues. In a series of fleeting scenes, you are also acquainted to a character that would go onto become the prime suspect here, even while an attempt is made to link his whereabouts to Mrs Deshpande. I am not going to lie – the first act was interesting while promising a lip-smacking murder mystery. But just then, the writers decide to be ambitious – either that or they are possessed by the ghost of an Aanand L Rai film, because all you get after that point are wild swings and atrocious twists that made me scratch my head. It became less about the killings and more about interpersonal relationships that completely derailed the drama.

The inconsistent tone of the drama cannot be overlooked too. When you are constructing a serial killer thriller, your USP is generally the killer, the victims and the investigation that follows. But if only one aspect of the drama is given importance, then the drama would invariably sink without a trace. Here though, the drama not only sinks due to this reason – but also because it wishes to add such wild and facepalming twists that make no sense after a point. It is similar to a test batter aspiring to play a T20 match, and invariably spoiling his own career. In other words, the killings JUST happen, the investigation JUST lingers on, and the pitch of the drama gets louder and louder.

The touch of a daily soup along with a repetitive passage of another character implied to be a serial killer is frustrating to witness, given how the ‘thrills’ are completely missing and predictable. After a point, even the actual identity of the killer can be guessed very easily, even while the drama is hell-bent on building a non-existential emotional core. Why would you do that? The peak of silliness is reserved for the final act wherein the whydunnit is so loose and atrocious that my mind wandered to another Hindi remake that conveyed the same plot. And I remember laughing then as much as I did here. If you are headed in that direction, care must be taken of its sensitivity as opposed to presenting it just as a shock value. Unfortunately, it all felt poorly staged with another wild swing at the end that ended my watch with a facepalm. And that quite honestly summed up the screenplay for me!