Mandala Murders review: Despite a fascinating plot, this series fails in every department

Produced by YRF Entertainment, this mythological crime thriller doesn't do justice to any of the three genres it belongs to.

Mandala Murders review: A centuries-old secret society, multiple languages being interchanged in a single conversation in a quaint town in India, ritual killings, exciting supporting characters and Vaani Kapoor - Mandala Murders gives you a little bit of everything, good and bad, and makes nothing out of it. 

Based in a ficticious and mysterious town, Charandaspur, this series dives into murder in the first 20 minutes of episode 1 by showing you a glimpse of a 'head attached to two hands and legs' floating past Vishwanath (Manu Rishi Chadha), Vikram's (Vaibhav Raj Gupta) father. While looking into this murder, Vikram chances upon a 'sadiyon se chalti hui' secret society that could've had something to do with his mother's disappearance, 22 years ago. Enter Detective Ria Thomas (Vaani Kapoor), a CIB officer, who is back in the field after an incident that has left her with PTSD; she cannot stop seeing visuals of a little girl with a gunshot wound on her chest. But since this is a series that hasn't given much thought to anything, Ria doesn't consider going for therapy, no! She simply goes from New Delhi to Charandaspur to dive headfirst into what looks like a simple whodunnit. How the two of them uncover this mystery is what Mandala Murders is about.

There are way too many loopholes in this Netflix original. How was Vikram not called when his fiancé, Kavita went missing from the hospital? How and why is Jimmy solving all these clues? Why was Kaivalya killed, if his wife, Kalindi (Piloo Vidyarthi) was the "Shaunak"? What exactly is the CIB doing if a commoner and a suspended cop are given the responsibility to solve the entire crime? Which woman in her right mind enters a freaky looking sthal in the middle of the night to talk to a bunch of women who clearly run a cult, just to ask them to relocate? You're so busy figuring these out, you aren't left with any intrigue by the 5th episode. Maybe that's also because Mandala Murders introduces more characters than it can keep up with. The aim was probably to tie it all together in the end but all this ends up doing is making you pause a bunch of times so you can keep up with who's who. Nandini (Vaani Kapoor), a particle physicist, shows up at Charandaspur with her husband, Anant (Sunny Hinduja). Despite having a meatier role to play, there's very little explained about her in comparison to her husband, who (spoiler aleart) dies in the next half hour. 

Also Read: Sarzameen review: A soulless family drama disguised as a patriotic film!

Watch the trailer here!

The biggest thing Mandala Murders had going for it was the plot and had it been fleshed out well, it would've probably had a decent storyline. But inconsistent language, serious gaps in the storyline, poor VFX and CGI, immature and weirdly slow fight sequences made it difficult to stay hooked to this one. So much was left unclear in this mythological thriller till the end - the biggest clues were being undone and chanced upon instead of capable detectives doing their one job. Characters disappeared without the script demanding this and only showed up when it was convenient; there is no mention of Vishwanath, Vikram's father after the first episode, even though he lives with him in Charandaspur; he only shows up in the last episode to shame his son and then reconcile with him.

It's hard to be mad at a series that has Raghubir Yadav, Jameel Khan, Anang Desai and so many familiar faces who have played the role of anchors to flight risk projects in the past but Mandala Murders makes this possible by reducing seasoned actors to props to keep its story going forward. Vaani Kapoor has no expressions throughout this series even when she's bawling her eyes out after having saved a child, something that helps her with her grief and PTSD from the last time she failed someone. Mandala Murders could've done so much with the mental health angle if only it knew how to. Trauma, grief, PTSD - all of these are handled terribly throughout the 8 episodes, leaving Kapoor looking like a robot in a scene that requires so much emotion and depth. Shriya Pilgaonkar plays Rukmini, the Voldemort of the Mandala universe. Rukmini should've been the one we're terrified of, sadly, Pilgaonkar's performance doesn't bring that out in us.

If attention to detail isn't what you seek, then this series could pique your interest.

Mandala Murders is streaming on Netflix.

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