The one time I laughed out loud during Hansal Mehta’s The Buckingham Murders, is when the film’s protagonist, Jasmeet Bhamra (Kareena Kapoor Khan) has had enough, and she storms out of her house and lets out a primal scream. It’s a staple in such procedurals when the lead, after a series of dead-ends, releases steam. Here, after Kapoor Khan lets out a scream that feels slightly self-conscious and not quite full-throttle, a neighbour yells back saying “Shut the fuck up! Some people are trying to sleep here.” In a film almost too bogged down by its genre’s tropes, this one moment feels authentic, irreverent and the one place where Mehta cuts loose.
Otherwise, The Buckingham Murders feels almost too sincere with replicating the conventions of a film like this. Mehta opens the film with the camera focusing on its ghost-like protagonist, sitting on a park bench with ear-pods plugged in. She’s just lost a child. Kapoor Khan sits around sans make-up, something she’s done often during a career, alternating between playing the star and showcasing the actor. Here, it seems like the actor is going to take charge.
It’s a magical sight, when a star uses their on-screen wattage and blends it effortlessly into a fine performance. It’s something Kapoor Khan has done earlier in Laal Singh Chaddha (2022), Talaash (2009) and Omkara (2006). Recently, the 43-year-old actor has felt more drawn towards ‘characters’ over quintessential ‘heroine’ parts. However, a certain kind of inhibition underlines her performances in Jaane Jaan (2023), Crew (2024) and now here. They aren’t bad performances per se, but there is a hint of residual ‘star’ vanity in the way they are designed. Even a ‘deglam’ version of it, like in Mehta’s latest. These bring forth Kapoor Khan’s limited perspective on her characters, never allowing her to do something truly unexpected. Unlike Kate Winslet, who imbued her ‘a cop with a past’ part in Mare of Easttown with a singular personality.
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Playing a grieving mother, Kapoor Khan only conveys her sadness and anger throughout the film. I get it she just lost her child, but Kapoor Khan plays her like she has no other dimensions — no wry humour, no personality, no flavour. Who is this person without her trauma? Known for his restraint, Mehta assaults us with flashbacks of Jasmeet and her son — in a park, in a gaming parlour, hugging and smiling. We get it. It’s too easy to manufacture sentiment like this and while I did sympathise with Jasmeet’s loss, I never saw why such a bland, one-note character was at the helm of proceedings. Unlike Abhay Deol and Rajshri Deshpande in Trial By Fire (2023), who are grieving parents, but have other attributes to make them fully-rounded human beings with the ability to laugh, feel guilty, act petty, be magnanimous, all the while shrouded by their grief.
Written by Aseem Arorra, Raghav Kakker, Kashyap Kapoor (the last two also wrote Faraaz with Mehta), The Buckingham Murders has a similar forward momentum. It creates a convincing world around contemporary issues haunting the UK. Racial tensions are rising between Sikhs and Muslims (initially because of ‘cricket’ and later because of misinformation, we’re told), and the disappearance of a young boy, Ishpreet, brings Jasmeet to town. When the boy’s body is found abandoned near a lake, inside a car, the cops start questioning suspects to find the culprit.
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Arrora, Kakker and Kapoor bring a lot of texture to the setting — Ishpreet’s parents are Daljeet (Ranveer Brar) and Preeti (Prabhleen Sandhu), whose marriage is on the downward slope. A former drug-dealer has turned to motivational content creator, a top-cop holds a grudge against a primary suspect, a loss-making business, a soured friendship between former business partners, characters hiding their sexuality from religious parents, the religious elders getting involved with the local law enforcement — a lot is going on in Buckinghamshire. But they never feel like part of one cohesive narrative, just red-herrings to distract the audience from its underwhelming finale. The killer, when revealed, straight up follows the formula of the least likely suspect. The logic behind the murder needed a bit more elaborate set-up.
The Buckingham Murders always seems on the cusp of becoming a good film, without ever achieving a satisfying conclusion. If Kapoor Khan would like to chart a new stage in her career, she will have to do better than replicating proven trajectories of her Hollywood colleagues. She will have to recalibrate her mind and reimagine star vehicles in a whole new way, where she sheds every last bit of ‘star’ self-consciousness. The ‘no make-up’ look might not be enough.
