Mrs Serial Killer Movie Review: An Awful Comedy Rather Than a Thriller

By Arbeena & Asif Khan

Starring Jacqueline Fernandez in a lead role, Mrs. Serial Killer is a latest Hindi Netflix crime thriller film written and directed by Shirish Kunder. The cast of the movie includes Manoj Bajpayee (Dr. Mrityunjoy Mukherjee), Mohit Raina (Inspector Imran Shahid), Darshan Jariwala (Brij Rastogi), and Zayn Marie Khan (Anushka Tiwari).

Set in Nainital, this 106-minutes long movie is based on a story of a wife (Jacqueline Fernandez) who opts to mimic the enormity of a serial killer in order to prove her husband’s (Manoj Bajpayee) innocence in the court of law.

Shirish Kunder is an Indian filmmaker, writer, producer, editor, and composer. The movies written and directed by him include Jaan-e-Maan (2006), Joker (2012), and Kriti (2016). Besides, he has edited several movies such as Champion, Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke, Aankhen, Om Shanti Om, Tees Maar Khan respectively.

The title of the movie definitely catches the attention, and may convince the audience to spare some time on it. However, the hilarious & pathetic thing about the movie is that Sona Mukherjee (Jacqueline) turns out a bad serial killer and she doesn’t kill anyone throughout! Instead, the girl (Zayn Marie) she plans to murder hits her back like a wonder woman at several instances whereas Sona appears frightened and helpless. Hence, the title of the movie, undoubtedly, misleads the viewer.

The plot is poorly written and one would bear it till the end only to figure out the reason behind the murder of six unmarried pregnant girls by the doctor (Manoj Bajpayee). But don’t think that you are going to get an answer for it. The movie disappoints with the climax as it’s unable to provide a convincing reason for the crime.

Though Sona, played by Jacqueline, is pressurized to marry Dr. Mrityunjoy ( Manoj Bajpayee), yet the movie shows Sona as a wife who loves her husband deeply. The movie hasn’t bothered to portray the scenes which show love growing in between the couple. With that being said, it ultimately leads to a failed attempt of justifying Sona’s decision of going to the harm’s way to save her husband.

Jacqueline’s bad acting and foreign Hindi accent doesn’t make her fit for the role. As such, the viewer won’t be able to connect with her character. Being the recipient of National and Filmfare awards, Manoj Bajpayee has brought disappointment to his fans through his silly acting and ill-suited role in this movie. His acting looks mute, mockery, and bland in the movie.  For instance, Manoj Bajpayee is seen dancing in the operation theatre before conducting the surgery of a pregnant woman towards the end of the movie. That looks funny rather than scary.

Darshan Jariwala (Brij Rastogi), playing the role of a senior criminal lawyer, is more like an underworld don than a lawyer. His home looks somewhat like a Disney castle. His support for the criminal doctor remains unclear in the movie.

Mohit Raina (Imran) is an indecent cop who after failing to find the real evidence against the doctor manipulates the proofs, in order to take revenge from him. Zayn Marie Khan (Anushka), the debutant, is an easygoing chatty girl with colorful hair who does’nt get scared after being kidnapped and prisoned inside the hospital room. As such, all the characters are not able to convince the viewer through their acting.

The movie falls short of logic at several places, like in the scene where Dr. Mrityunjoy stabs Sona’s hand with the scalpel and she still sits as if unhurt. The presence of tons of glucose bags hung inside the operation theatre remains a mystery. The film maker looks in no mood to reveal the reason for their existence.

The movie isn’t outstanding in the technical aspects as well. The camera work is below par and obscure at times. The maternity hospital of Dr. Mrityunjoy, through long shot, appears as some haunted building located in the outskirts. However, inside, it looks totally different through different camera angles, thereby drawing a sharp contrast between the interiors and exteriors of the building. That is confusing and the viewer may not be able to relate the two faces of the same maternity hospital.

The movie is not so well written, edited, and executed. This is Shirish Kunder’s worst shade as far as his other works are concerned (already mentioned above). With unconvincing dialogues, zero songs, and bad background music; it appears to be the work of an immature and inexperienced person. The lighting and cinematography isn’t up to the mark and many fighting scenes look unrealistic. Especially, the one in that unknown floral place where Sona and Anushka are seen exchanging blows totally looks artificial. The soil used during this scene looks more like sparkling magic flakes.

This so called thriller movie is full of flaws, and isn’t able to do justice to the genre it claims to belong. There is nothing thrilling about the story, thereby, takes the shape of an awful comedy. To conclude, Mrs. Serial Killer does’nt have what platforms like Netflix demand. The movie is dull, unexciting, nonsensical, flimsy, and definitely not worth watching.

• Critiques are the students of Mass Communication & Journalism from the University of Kashmir, Srinagar and can be reached at: [email protected], [email protected]