Review of "Charlie Chopra & The Mystery of Solang Valley": Vishal Bhardwaj directs a fun whodunit

Bhardwaj is back to his old self with Charlie Chopra. On his home pitch, a batsman can sweep for the first time.

We have faith in Vishal Bhardwaj. Recent films by the director, like Fursat (2023), an iPhoneshot short, or Mumbai Dragon in the anthology series Modern Love: Mumbai (2022), both exhibited the artist's distinctive style. After the explosive Pataakha (based on Charan Singh Pathik's short story Do Behnein), Bhardwaj returns to literary adaptations with his mouthwatering OTT series premiere Charlie Chopra & The Mystery of Solang Valley.

Bhardwaj is back to his old self with Charlie Chopra. On his home pitch, a batsman can sweep for the first time. The Sittaford Mystery, written by Agatha Christie in 1931, was adapted into a television series. The director skillfully shapes the original story in his frame rather than just adapting it. If you've read the whodunit, you may either quibble with the narrative changes or be impressed by how Bhardwaj captures the spirit of the written word on film. The main adjustment would be to make Emily Trefusis, an inconsequential character in the book, the lead protagonist instead of amateur detective Charlie Chopra.

It's possible that the premise is a tired murder mystery. When a wealthy man is assassinated, everyone nearby may have been motivated by money. The Knives Out television show would come to mind for viewers. In the first scene of Charlie Chopra, a séance is being conducted during a cosy house party in snowy Solang. Colonel Barua (Baharul Islam), a close friend of ex-Brigadier Rawat (Gulshan Grover), chooses to travel to Manali, where the Brigadier resides, after a possessed girl prophesies the ex-Brigadier's death.

The ex-soldier is discovered sprawled out on the ground. Jimmy Nautiyal (Vivaan Shah), the shy nephew of the Brigadier, is implicated by a hotel room key found at the crime site. Jimmy's fiancee Charulata (Charlie) Chopra, played by an arresting Wamiqa Gabbi, who was born a detective, is on the case. According to the investigation, Brigadier Rawat was a snobby miser; his early demise would have benefited his "greedy" family.

And the suspects are lined up: the Brigadier's brother Mohan (Lalit Parimoo) and his wife Janki (Neena Gupta), who are in need of money for their son's kidney transplant, the ex-soldiers' niece Saloni (Paoli Dam), broke pulp fiction author Manas (Chandan Roy Sanyal), Saloni and Jimmy's shady brother Billu (Imaad Shah), the Brigadier

The same comfort may be found in binge-watching Charlie Chopra as it can in curling up with a mystery book on a frosty morning. But the peculiarities of the narrator are what keep the reader turning the page rather than their curiosity about the murderer. Charlie from Wamiqa routinely breaks the fourth wall, sometimes for flowery Punjabi insults and other times for revealing a secret merely by looking at us with her big, telling eyes. Every time the suspense begins to fade, Wamiqa's eccentricity and charm burst through the screen and draw you back in.

The plot may be predictable in and of itself, but Bhardwaj excels at creating an atmosphere. The cinematographer Tassaduq Hussain, who previously worked with him on Omkara (2006), and Sunidhi Chauhan's mesmerising voice provide him with a lot of support. Chopra, Charlie begins as a light-hearted mystery but, when the protagonist's parental history is explored, hints of a deeper agony are revealed.

Bhardwaj introduces his politics in between the red herrings, the suspects, the alibis, the clues, and the breaking of the fourth wall. The mysterious cook is actually a Bangladeshi refugee who was once asked for his identification. A skilled journalist is charged with "cheating an entire nation for TRP." Characters speak up when individuals can't.

Charlie Chopra & The Mystery of Solang Valley 

Cast: Wamiqa Gabbi, Priyanshu Painyuli, Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Vivaan Shah, Imaad Shah, Neena Gupta, Lara Dutta

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Rating: 3/5