Detective Sherdil

Detective Sherdil Movie Review: A billionaire is found dead. It's the most heinous murder. A shocking revelation comes out in his will. His fortune is divided between his favourite dog and a complete outsider. Hints, shock and outrage. Enter the sharp-witted detective Sherdil, and the worms come out. On the list of suspects is Pankaj Bhatti's (Boman Irani) entire family, including wife Rajeshwari (Ratna Pathak Shah), son Angad (Sumeet Saigal) and daughter Shanti (Banita Sandhu). The dead man's driver is also under the scanner, but the family's anger is directed at Shanti's lover Purva (Arjun Tanwar), a deaf-mute like her, who is the biggest beneficiary of Bhatti's generosity. This ensemble cast, led by Dosanjh, has enough accomplished actors, so we can expect an interesting mystery. But the film's treatment is very flat, making the characters even flatter, as they speak their lines and then disappear. Why, for instance, is this film set in Budapest? At least it seems that way, and everyone drives around in cars at high speeds, stopping at huge mansions and police stations that could be anywhere. The fact that Shanti is hearing and speech-impaired, and so is her lover, has the potential to make things better. As did Chunky Pandey's sadhu avatar. But very little makes a difference. It’s not that our clever detective, a mix of Byomkesh and Karamchand, as he succinctly describes himself, isn’t trying his best: we hear him speak in English which is a nice change from his usual Hindi/Punjabi, he makes sidelong glances at flexible colleague Natasha (Diana Penty), with whom he has a bit of history, he plays the harmonica whenever he gets the chance, and he gets plenty of it, and he belts out songs.