Homi Adajania’s latest murder mystery was released on Netflix on 15th March and the 142-minute-long film features an ensemble cast within the walls of an elite British-era club.

When we watch a whodunnit film where a bunch of individuals have something to hide and they go above and beyond to do so, we expect a web of red herrings, lies, betrayal, and most importantly, murder. And it is natural that we, as audiences, will be tempted to pit these films against modern-age whodunnits like Knives Out (2019), which helped revive the genre on the silver screen.

While Adajania’s adaptation holds up the close-knit setting of a classic murder mystery, the overall recipe for a good one goes wrong with the slow pace, overly done farce, satire, and comic relief.

Set within the grounds of an exclusive Delhi club filled with the snobby and pretentious minded class, the film opens up in the setting of the club’s tambola party with an introduction of every character with their names and quirky titles slapped across the screen in bold letters. As we sit through the introduction, knowing that we won’t even remember their names after a few minutes, we wait for the crime to take place.

The next morning, the murder of a Zumba instructor named Leo shakes up the hollow lives of these opulent individuals. Enter our Sherlock Holmes in a pair of glasses and golf hat, Pankaj Tripathi, with his Watson sub-inspector Padam Kumar (whose absence wouldn’t have made a difference to the film).

The film goes on to create a web of events, conversations, murders, backstories, and characters and gets so entangled in it along the way that it becomes sloppy, forced, and gets too off-track to keep the interest alive. Everything is happening, and at the same time, nothing is happening; the detective within the audience is trying to figure out what is going on. After every few minutes, we need to go back to remember, “Who is this character now?” Not to mention a few loopholes that don’t add up; for instance, the fact that no one noticed that Anshul wasn’t even alive to board the bus he supposedly died on and disappeared. How did no one notice he was missing? Since his murder was not planned, how did all the circumstances fall into place? Well, we will never know.

In the film, Sara Ali Khan and Vijay Verma’s characters get the most screen time other than the detective, and we know why. Oftentimes, their characters’ relationships overshadow the mystery, making the murder the side plot.

The film is saved by Pankaj Tripathi’s wit, persona and comic timing, which added a pinch of charm along with his banter with Karisma Kapoor, making the film salvageable. All in all, the adrenaline offered by a nail-biting whodunnit was missing, and the film is a fine one-time watch.