Looks like Sony Liv has found its bearing now, hence it is coming out with classy web series on its OTT platforms. I did enjoy Undekhi, Avarodh, Scam 1992 (still watching), Your honor & Ram Singh Charlie in the recent past, let me add JL50 (for its novelty of attempting a desi science fiction). This simple murder now will be a new addition to my list. It’s a kind of wild concoction of a pink “pantherish” dark humour, comedy of error, and a thriller, a product which the likes of Sriram Raghavan will love.
Hats off to the director Sachin Pathak displaying his deftness and making the cast come out with knockout performances. Sachin Pathak comes from the school of Nishikant Kamat, where he had assisted him for Drishyam, he had also directed web series like Rangbaaz and Rangbaaz firse. With such a body of work behind him, he does not disappoint us in this simple murder. Also, due credit has to be given to the writers for coming out with a “maze-filled” plot with twists and turns filled crime caper.
It was nice to see talented Zeeshan Ayyub finally getting a lead role, at last, else I was getting a feeling that this NSD trained actor will end up being a Vinod Mehra of this era, doing only second fiddle roles of Chota bhai or a sidekick to main lead. He plays a dysfunctional "start-up" guy trying very hard to “kick-start”, while his wife played by “Priya Anand” is so overambitious who can go to any extent to become rich. Zeeshan accidentally lands up in a “hitman’s” role where he gets a supari to bump off a girl who has eloped from her family (kind of honour killing), he is handsomely paid for this job. Needless to state that things go awry, and the plot becomes more complex. In the plot there are two more hitmen played by talented Amit Sial and Sushant Singh, they provide enough fodder to this cat and mouse tale. How can a thriller be without a goofy police team, here we have another NSD talent Gopal Datta entertaining us.
Apart from the plot and good performances, another good thing about the 7-episode web series is it's hardly 30-40 mins short episodes, hence even if you binge-watch it, you may feel as if you have sat thru a 3-hr long Bollywood movie. The animation title track has a typical pink panther feel to it, I only wish it also changed with each episode amplifying the curiosity element. While on the negatives, makers could have avoided the love jihad angle, the action scenes are very amateurishly done, and the overstretched climax could have been sleekly done. Maybe the makers wanted to make some relevant provisions so that Season 2 could dove-tail into this season.
The plot about mistaken identity is unmistakably funny, though the premise of the plot is dark (murder) it has enough comic relief with funky dialogs which will put a smile if not laughter on your face. Watch it.
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