Review of Talvar

Direction: Meghna Gulzar

Producers: Vineet Jain, Vishal Bhardwaj

Production
Company: Junglee Pictures /
VB Pictures

Written by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Screenplay: Vishal Bhardwaj

Cinematography: Pankaj Kumar

Music by:  Vishal Bhardwaj

Edited by: A Sreekar Prasad

Release Date: 2nd October, 2015 (Showcased in Toronto International
Film Festival on 14th September, 2015)

Duration: 2 hours 12 minutes

Language: Hindi, English (titled as Guilty)

Talvar, a film by Meghna
Gulzar, is based on 2008 Noida double murder case of a teenage girl and her
domestic help – Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj. This case had caught the attention
of whole nation. For almost a month, it was the top news in every News Channel
and captured the headlines of every newspaper. One of the most talked about and
intriguing murder mystery case. The tragedy with this case is that the mystery
is still unresolved. Parents were convicted for this murder in 2013 and still
in prison after getting sentenced for life imprisonment. Many questions remain
unanswered. Even the parents’ imprisonment does not give any closure to this
case. Although the circumstantial evidence worked against them, somehow, the
nation still remains divided as far as the parents’ convicting is concerned. People
are not able to accept that well educated and civilized doctor couple could
murder their only daughter. Many felt that it could be a case of honour
killing. A few others felt that there could be more to the whole episode than
what is being talked in the media. Meghna’s Talvar is fictional dramatization
of the events revolving around Aarushi-Hemraj murder case. Early this year (30th
January, 2015), we had seen ‘Rahasya’ by Manish Gupta. This film was also
inspired by the same case, but the plot completely deviated from the facts
apart from that in some initial shots. Meghna has definitely done justice as
far as recording the facts are concerned. The plot, characters are very closely
etched out. Even the names of the characters sound very close (Khempal for
Hemraj; Ramesh for Rajesh; Nutan for Nupur etc.), or synonyms (Kanhaiya for
Krishna).

Nutan (Konkana
Sen Sharma) finds her 14 year old daughter Shruti Tandon dead in her bedroom
(Sameer Vihar, Noida). Family’s domestic help Khempal is found missing and by
default, he is sought after by the police as a prime suspect of Shruti’s
murder. But the next day, his partially decomposed body is recovered from the
terrace of the building. It is being
said that police officers had not carefully gathered the evidence from the
crime scene and the very same facts are shown in the film too. The film takes a
dig at how media and investigation officers goofed up the whole case. Rather,
the media was abstained from covering the case details and making judgmental /
not yet proven allegations against the victim’s family. The senior police
officer is shown to be very very casual even during gathering of evidence, who
is more busy with his phone. He botched the whole initial crime-scene
investigation. These initial investigation by police officers bring the doctor
couple under radar of doubt which further leads to the arrest of Shruti’s
father Ramesh Tandon (Neeraj Kabi). The case is given to CDI agency (an elite
investigation agency) for further investigation. Ashwin Kumar (Irrfan Khan)
enters into the scene as an investigation officer, who has been asked to
resolve the mystery behind this double murder case. Ashwin believed that the
parents didn’t do the crime and he focuses his investigation towards Ashwin’s
compounder Kanhaiya (Sumit Gulati), and two other accomplices. Narco test was
done on them to figure out the facts and build up the case methodically. Ashwin
was almost there to prove that Kanhaiya and his accomplices committed the
murders, but some goof-up happens with the evidence. The case is handed over to
another probe team who refocuses on parents as the suspects.

How the investigation moves further? How, once exonerated doctor couple,
get sentenced for life imprisonment for killing their daughter? Two teams of
the same agency come up with different hypotheses? Which one is actually valid?
 

The film
highlights the way how investigation and judicial system works in our country. It
also talks about the kind of journalism today. The media is so judgmental at
times, rather decides the course of investigation and verdict even when the
case is under trial. The stories are sensationalized by the media. This case
could have had a proper closure, provided the case was handled responsibly by
concerned officers right from the beginning. 

This piece of my
writing is hardly any review of the movie as such. Since I feel that the movie
is very much factual and I could only document what has been covered. It is
challenging to review such a film. Almost most of the details viz. the events,
tampering of the evidence, doubt with the postmortem reports etc. are covered. It
is focused on the three different courses of action / investigation results
which finally convicted the parents. The first one was by the local police, who
officially issued the statement it to be honour-killing by father, also raised
fingers on the victim’s and parents’ characters. The second perspective was of
Ashwin Kumar, whose investigation was on Dr. Ramesh’s compunder Kanhaiya and
his accomplices. And the third perspective was from probe team who took the
case from Ashwin and disregarded his findings and held the parents culpable.

Does the movie
take any sides? The movie is definitely unbiased but it is more in the format
of documenting the story. For those, who have followed the case closely, no new
elements are there. So, one wonders at the end of the film, what new is being
showcased in this film and conveyed. It may disappoint you, if you want the
answers to the still unresolved murder mystery. It may appeal to you, if you
just want to understand the most intriguing murder mystery and the events which
led to the victim’s parents’ imprisonment.     

Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar is very very close to the real happenings
of Noida Double Murder Mystery case. It documents the facts. Definitely a
decent watch.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good+)