'Search: Naina Murder...' review: No thrills in Konkona's crime show
What's the story
Konkona Sen Sharma's Search: The Naina Murder Case, on JioHotstar, is produced by Applause Entertainment and Highgate Entertainment. Directed by Rohan Sippy, it stars Shiv Panditt, Dhruv Sehgal, Varun Thakur, Iravati Harshe, and Sagar Deshmukh in key roles. The show makes some solid points about generation gap and women's safety, but overall, it feels overstuffed and all over the place.
Plot
A mysterious murder case and too many suspects
The series is based on the Danish show Forbrydelsen. It follows ACP Sanyukta Das (Sen Sharma) and ACP Jai Kanwal (Surya Sharma), tasked with investigating the murder of a college student named Naina. Jai and Sanyukta don't see eye-to-eye; her marriage is crumbling, a chasm has developed between her and her daughter, and the case becomes increasingly messier. Can Sanyukta save the day?
#1
What works: Performances shine throughout the show
A strong ensemble cast steers the show and keeps it on track. Sen Sharma is, as always, dependable as the lead and does most of the heavy lifting. Panditt plays an ambiguous politician who has made performative feminism his entire personality, while Deshmukh delivers a chilling performance as Naina's father. He brings alive the ache and angst of a man wronged by fate.
#2
Works best when it focuses on Sankyukta's personal life
Most of Sanyukta's conversations with her husband, Bheesham (Mukul Chadda), are telephonic, and yet, make for some of the show's most realistic moments. Sanyukta's personal life is far more interesting to study than the drudged investigation. At its best, the show is an accurate portrait of a woman too much in love with her job and too little in love with everything else.
#3
Negatives: Feels disjointed and lackluster
The biggest issue with Search: The Naina Murder Case is that it bites more than it can chew. It aims to focus on too many issues simultaneously, and in doing so, is unable to do justice to most of them. It explores working women's obstacles, workplace sexism, and teenagers' secret lives, but struggles to cast the same spotlight on every issue equally.
#4
Where are the thrills in this thriller?
Despite being only six episodes long, the show has no sense of urgency or grittiness. The list of suspects gets longer, the stakes rise rapidly, and time threatens to run out, and yet, almost all characters remain at a distance from us. There's no subtlety or room for surprise, and generic dialogues dominate the series.
#5
Feels a little too staged
With wooden characters who speak the way only characters in Indian shows do, STNMC never touches the heights of realism it aims to. Too many suspects, instead of making the show thrilling, wear it down, and it becomes tough to focus on the multiple plotlines as the narrative progresses. It takes place over a few days, and yet, feels dragged.
Verdict
Nothing you haven't watched before; 2.5/5 stars
The characters undergo a gamut of emotions, but we struggle to ever feel anything for them. The emotions don't land, character development is convenient, and while the makers try to keep things unpredictable, it doesn't always work. It has solid performances, and the actors try their best to salvage the material, but overall, the show feels too artificial and contrived. 2.5/5 stars.