Murder in Mahim: Provoking LGBTQ Respect Dialogue Amid Imperfections

Rating:

Producer: Ajit Andhare
Director: Raj Acharya
Cast: Ashutosh Rana, Vijay Raj, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Shivaji Satam, Divya Jagdale, Bharat Ganeshpure, Sanjeev Satya Vijay, Rajesh Khattar, Nishant Khanduja, Smita Tambe and others
Duration: Approximately five and a half hours, eight episodes of 37 to 48 minutes each
OTT Platform: Free on Jio Cinema, from May 10
The Supreme Court has abolished Section 377 related to the 'gay' community, but this web series tells the story before 2013, in which the issues related to the 'gay' community as well as complex family relationships have been discussed.

Story:

Based on the novel by Jerry Pinto, the web series "Murder in Mahim" follows the journey of a principled police officer, Shivajirao Jhende (Vijay Raaz), who investigates a series of murders of youth from the LGBTQ community in the toilets of Mumbai's Mahim railway station. Let's check. In this investigation, Jhende's assistant Firdaus Rabbani (Shivani Raghuvanshi), and two constables Durra and Pagman are involved. The story begins with the gruesome murder of a young man named Proxy in the toilet of Mahim railway station. When Police Inspector Shivrajrao Jhende (Vijay Raj) arrives to investigate the murder, he finds that the name 'Dinesh' is written in lipstick on the arm of the deceased. Before Jhande's investigation can get any direction, a man named Dinesh is murdered and a paper is found in his pocket, on which the name of Havildar Durra is written. Jhende and Firdaus continue the investigation. Before the investigation can reach any conclusion, Durra's son and Pagaman are also murdered. Now the investigation becomes quite complex. So Inspector Zende seeks help from his old friend and retired crime journalist Peter Fernandes (Ashutosh Rana), who has a history with Jhende's father. Sometimes Jhende and Peter used to solve every case together. But once Peter's revelations, Jhende's father, who works in the police department, is accused of corruption and he is removed from the job. Here Peter struggles with his conflicting feelings about his son's sexuality. Peter discovers a world of secret desire, greed, and despair, a world that Peter and his wife Milly (Divya Jagdale) and their son Sunil (Rohan Verma) fear becoming a part of. He has already done a lot of investigating in an attempt to find out the truth about his son Sunil's sexuality before helping Jhede. As the story progresses with the investigation, it is revealed that Durra and Pagman have been extorting money from the 'gay' community by honey trapping. Then the love between Firdaus and Doctor Rehana comes to the fore, both of them are homosexuals. One day Peter's son Sunil also accepts that he is gay. Jhende and Peter's hard work pays off. Both of them reach the killer.

Review:

Despite all the mistakes in screenwriting and loose stories, this web series talks very meaningfully about complex human relationships, sex, and the physical needs of humans. This series highlights 'the honey-trapping of individuals from the LGBTQ community. It is accepted that despite the repeal of Section 377 by the Supreme Court, the LGBTQ community has not yet been recognized and respected in society, but the same hatred towards the LGBTQ community is no longer visible, the way it has been shown in this series. In our daily lives, we see such characters around us in almost every field. The way Peter and his wife Mili accept their son Sunil being gay also seems very strange. This series raises many questions about the police department. Murders take place due to rampant corruption in the police department and the greed to earn more money in less time, but in the series, the police department remains silent about taking action because there are indications of corruption on a large scale somewhere. Earlier, filmmaker Harish Vyas had talked about every issue by making a very good film on the gay community in the film ‘Hum Bhi Akele Tum Bhi Akele’. Secondly, now such toilets are no longer available at any railway station in Mumbai, all the toilets are in private hands. This series loses its credibility in the eyes of people who are aware of this truth. The writer and director have failed in many places. The story has been diverted unnecessarily, it would have been better if a good film was made on it. The character and story of PT teacher Chandrakant were not executed properly.

Acting:

Vijay Raj in the role of Police Inspector Jhende and Ashutosh Rana in the role of journalist Peter Fernandes are experienced actors, but they do not get the help of screenwriting in many scenes. The rest of the artists were new, and some of the artists did not know anything to do, it was just six pieces. Shivani Raghuvanshi in the character of Firdaus gives some hope. Nishant Khanduja as Viral and Rohan Verma as Sunil have failed to make an impact.

-Shantiswarup Tripathi

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