Dial m for murder review

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 Thanks Mayur, for the confidence you entrust me for the review. I will give it a try. I will keep it generic, so Ninad can use it as a general public review. Being generic, it is a purely objective review. So I am not talking of it as a personal experience, which would otherwise have included the fact that it was the 250th show, or it was held at the opulent Opea House (which is a magnificent experience by itself) or for that matter it was produced by our dear friend, Ninad.


Here is the review:


While it is common knowledge the play is an adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s, ‘Dail M for Murder’, which again was based on the play (1954) by Frederick Knott,  this Marathi play version is extraordinary in terms of the skill of adaptation. Everything was so perfectly localized in the cultural milieu of Mumbai of the1970’s, in and around its Girgaum locality, that never for a moment you realize that this is an adaptation. The credit goes to the writer, Neeraj Shirwaikar.


The team of Vijay Kenkre, the Director and Neeraj Shirvaikar have also given us the play ‘Khara Khara Sang’ under the banner of Badam Raja Productions. While ‘A Perfect Murder’ is a crime thriller, ‘Khara Khara Sang’ is an uproarious comedy. Both genres of plays have been expertly handled by this team and speaks of their versatility, given that both genres are so diverse and have their own unique dramatic demands.


A word about the language. Since it is set in an upper class household, the language has the right nuances, but an interesting twist has been the language of Inspector Gharge (played by Satish Rajwade). He uses a local Marathi dialect, which gives the play a unique flavor. At one point he says, I am educated, have done my UPSC and I can speak as polished a language as you do, but I prefer to speak in my own language, which I am proud of.


There are some scenes that are unforgettable. For example, when Niranjan (played by Pushkar Shroti) thought he would see his wife, Meera (played by Priya Marathe) for the last time  before planning her murder, he walks to her and holds her close, patting her cheeks as he wishes her goodbye one last time. As a viewer we wonder if there was contempt in his action or remorse at seeing her for the last time. Meera’s own reaction was haunting. Whatever it was, the scene created an air of horrible finality,  as a build up to what was to happen next.


The whole play is dramatized in a single room in a flat, so it was the play of lights and the background music that created the perfect crime scenes within its space. It is not a typical Whodunit type of thriller but you may call it a ‘Hedunit’ , where through gripping situations we wonder whether the villian will get away with it. Niranjan as an incredibly slimy and sauve villain plays a classic role, as the story cleverly unravels his scheming and devious mind.


There are enough twists and surprises as plans fail and are cleverly improvised. We are subconsciously directed to the elements of crime when Meera’s lover (played by Shrikant Prabhakar), a writer of suspense thrillers explains how he constructs and solves his crime mysteries. He says he uses three boxes, Who, How and Why and pulls out its contents. The Why or the motive box has, Hated, Vengeance, Jealousy, Fear… and Love. The narrative is taut and it left to the absolutely last scene when the crime reaches the conclusion it must.

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