Media Magick

The last few releases by Netflix are more hype than quality that it used to offer to its audience and viewers. “She” and “Extraction” are just two out of many examples. Let’s see what Mrs Serial Killer has to offer to its viewers. The Netflix Original Mrs. Serial Killer features chameleon like Manoj Bajpayee, ravishingly beautiful Jacqueline Fernandez and Mohit Raina in pivotal characters.

Mrs Serial Killer is a suspense thriller that revolves around the mysteries behind a few murders committed on the same patterns. There is nothing much to reveal about the plot as most of it has already been shown in the trailer. The big question remains, who’s the killer? But if you are a Bollywood fanatic then you will take no time in cracking this riddle. Or if you are watching such murder mysteries since Gupt released, you won’t be surprised with the climax.

The narrative could have been very engaging because the story had a lot to offer that is romance, passion, intimacy, revenge and action but it all fizzled down somewhere during the first twenty minutes. Perhaps the rushed storytelling and abruptly infused characters with out of blue addition spoiled the impact of the storytelling. One of the biggest disappointments is to watch an actress getting the titular role of a Hindi film who can hardly speak the language correctly. Every time Jacqueline tries to express her feelings or act the character she looks totally misfit and the element of creating a connection vanishes completely. From her wardrobe to her mannerism everything looks superfluous and hard to relate.

It looks like Mohit Raina walked from the sets of Bhaukaal to Mrs Serial Killer as he acts and looks the same. Or probably, this is the only kind of expressionless acting he can do at the moment. The character of this cop that is played by Raina is so Vikram/Mahesh Bhatt-ish films from 2000s. Watching Manoj Bajpayee playing a character that lacks substance, reality and scrawny traits disappoint again. Those who have watched Bajpayee’s work like Kaun?, Love Sonia and Aligarh can tell what immense grip he has on characters that are smartly and deeply written. But unfortunately, the character of MrityunJoy that he played in Mrs. Serial Killer is anything closer to those.

Shirish Kunder’s previous ventures as director include Jaan-e-Man and Joker besides a short film titled Kriti (that also featured Bajpayee). In all Kunder’s movies one thing is common, he gets carried away very soon and that’s mostly in the first half. Mrs Serial Killer suffers from the same bug. The way screenplay is written, it is rushed where it’s not required and lingers on where things need to happen faster. The beauty of a crime-caper or a thriller is the involvement of various and unexpected characters or at least twists and turns; this Netflix Original suffers from having none of these.

If you have a lot of time in the quarantine and you liked Netflix and Jacqueline’s previous project “Drive” then give Mrs Serial Killer a try, else skip.