Apart from the fact that the psychopathic villain sings the Bheegey Honth Tere song whenever he’s pissed off, Murder 2 has nothing in common with Murder.[break]
Unlike 2004 released Murder, a ditto of Hollywood’s “Unfaithful,” Murder 2 isn’t just about adulterous sex scenes and kissing; it’s darker in tone and texture. Murder 2 is frantically dark and the characters are piteously unhappy.
Director Mohit Suri takes the same line of execution that he experimented with his 2005 hit film Kalyug.
He showed the audiences the world of prostitution, pimps and desperate cops in Kalyug. With Murder 2, director Suri goes more rigorous and intense with the “take it and bleed it” world created by Mahesh Bhatt.
Keeping up with the stereotypically Mahesh Bhatt’s way of filmmaking, the film often proceeds straight for the kill. Nevertheless, Mohit Suri’s Murder 2 is bolder, sleazier and edgier than Murder.
The film that’s meant to keep you on the edge of your seat does the job as both the first half and the latter gets you hooked holding you attention throughout.
SPOILER AHEAD: The extremely violent laid Murder 2 gives us a story where a homicidal psychopath butchers call girls and prostitutes on his own merits and disposes them into a pit while an ex-cop (Emraan Hashmi) takes up the mission unofficially to nab the killer and solve the mystery.
If only director Suri could’ve kept the serial killer behind the curtain for sometime, he could’ve had the audiences biting their nails till the very end. But the unveiling of the killer before the first half kills the primary thrills of the movie largely.
It’s not Emraan Hashmi and Jacqueline Fernandez who take the credits in Murder 2. It has to be Prashant Narayanan who takes your breath away as a psychopathic eunuch who’s on a killing spree – and mind you, it’s the beautiful call girls he targets.
In fact, Narayanan is the only actor in the film who transcends above the script with his performance.
It’s not that the villain’s part in the film was written better. It is just that Narayanan makes it loud and clear that a gifted actor can mount beyond the script by absolute mark of his own astuteness.
And yes, one other thing, Narayanan’s character should be a déjà vu for many as it resembles the famous character Maharani from Mahesh Bhatt’s 90’s super hit “Sadak”, who was also an eunuch.
Even filmmaker Bhatt tweeted, appreciating Narayanan’s performance, “’Murder 2’ reminds me of Sadak. Watching the film with the audience was an exhilarating experience.
If there’s anyone else after him, it’s got to be Sulagna Panigrahi (Reshma, a victim in the movie) who falls easily into the gravity of the terror and delivers the best.
Coming back to Emraan Hashmi, “the serial kisser” of Bollywood, he’s back with his kissing potentials as you get to see many lip-locks in the film while his acting remains a typecast.
Fortunately, though Sri Lankan beauty Jacqueline Fernandez has a very less to do in the movie, she makes the most out of it.
Good that we don’t have Mallika Sherawat in Murder 2 because Fernandez certainly knows better than just getting skin deep.
The background score in the movie tunes with the atmosphere and adds the intensity in the film while Ravi Walia’s cinematography and Devendra Murdeshwar’s editing adds the additional flavors to make this suspense thriller blood-freezing.
The only setback is that the Murder 2 isn’t recommended for all kinds of movie aficionados because all the killings in the film are done in graphic detail.
There are many such scenes of gruesome murder that you wouldn’t want to see but will still have to.
Screening at QFX Cinemas.
The writer is Program Officer at Indian Cultural Centre.