Search: The Naina Murder Case

It’s just another whodunit on the face of it, but packs pertinent points as it unfolds. The title itself is a giveaway. The very first scene shows flashes of a brutal killing. Here onwards, we come to the heart of the series: Konkona Sen Sharma. She is ACP (Crime Branch) Sanyukta Das, who is about to leave Mumbai to join her husband (a credible special appearance by Mukul Chadda) in Ahmedabad.

‘क्रिमिनल जस्टिस’, ‘मिथ्या’, ‘दुरंगा’, क्‍या आप जानते हैं कि रोहन सिप्पी के डायरेक्‍शन में बनीं इन सभी वेब सीरीज में एक कॉमन बात क्या है? ये सब किसी न किसी चर्चित वेब सीरीज का अडैप्टेशन हैं। अब इसी सिलसिले को आगे बढ़ाते हुए वह अपनी नई क्राइम थ्रिलर सीरीज ‘सर्च: द नैना मर्डर केस’ लेकर आए हैं। यह साल 2007 में आए मशहूर डैनिश शो ‘द किलिंग’ का इंडियन रीमेक है। यह सीरीज एक लड़की नैना के रेप और मर्डर की गुत्थी सुलझाने पर आधारित है।

It’s Sankyukta Das’s last day at work at her cop station; she is headed to another city, and a desk job, which will give her more time with her husband-and-daughter-and-mother, all of whom gets pushed aside when it comes to the most important thing in her life: the work at hand. This, as it turns out, in the first part of the show comprising six episodes, is the discovery of a dead girl in a local politician’s campaign car. Family commitments will have to wait, as Sanyukta dives into assembling her team, while having to deal with barely-hidden barbs from a smug new entrant to her team Jai Kanwal (Surya Sharma), who thinks he knows better.

There are good shows and bad shows. Then, there are shows like Search: The Naina Murder Case, which resist classification not because they are too nuanced for binaries but because they are too frustrating to arrive at such conclusions. Although divided into six episodes, the Rohan Sippy-directed outing feels endless, and it is the jarring lack of ambition, that leaks into every clog, turning out to be its biggest flaw. If I still haven’t been clear, let me just say this: The Naina Murder Case makes Konkona Sen Sharma look bad, and any person worth a Letterboxd account would know, this is not good news.

In the opening episode of the Search: The Naina Murder Case, its protagonist, ACP Sanyukta Das (Konkona Sen Sharma), engages in banter with the cocky man replacing her, ACP Jai Kanwal (Surya Sharma). Star detective Sanyukta is transferring herself to the cyber crime unit in a new city to save her marriage. Jai taunts her for this decision. To get the better of him, Sanyukta casually spoils the twist of a popular crime drama he’s watching. “Silent Justice” is the name of this show, a nod to Criminal Justice, one of the biggest hits of the same streaming platform and production company. The self-referencing is ironic, because Search is another page out of this OTT playbook: SEO-coded title, by-the-books remake of multi-season European/British series, less-than-ambitious staging, formulaic twists, middling craft, functional conflicts, curated colour.