Murder Mubarak is based on the best-selling novel Club You To Death by Anuja Chauhan, but it operates in both a very long line of whodunit tradition dating back to Agatha Christie, and in the on-screen renaissance of the genre ushered in by major successes like the Knives Out, Poirot, and Murder Mystery franchises. The stylish Indian movie features an ensemble cast, a terrible crime, and a dedicated investigator looking for answers among myriad suspects.
Murder Mubarak is based on the novel Club You to Death by Anuja Chaujan. The novel takes its lead from the classic whodunnits by Agatha Christie and features many of the tropes found within the pages of stories such as Murder on The Orient Express and Death on the Nile. The book was published by HarperCollins India in 2021 and is set in the Delhi Turf Club, where the murder of a personal trainer kicks off an investigation that leads to several privileged suspects, with plenty of secrets and motives, being investigated.
Anuja Chaujan would reveal that she worked with the film’s producers, and was sent the script of the production, agreeing to the changes which were made, including avoiding some of the more political aspects of the source material.
What else has Anuja Chaujan written?
The talented author is also involved in advertising and screenwriting but is known for her novels, including The Zoya Factor in 2008, Battle for Bittora in 2010, Those Pricey Thakur Girls in 2013, The House That BJ Built in 2015, Baaz in 2015, and Club You To Death in 2021.
What inspired the novel?
In an interview with The Federal, the author would say:
“I like to write about places that I have access to, and can write about with authority. I like to set books in places that I know. I know advertising, clubs, election campaigns, cantonment life, and that part of Delhi really well because we have lived there for more years than I can count.”
Murder Mubarak is Drawing Similarities to Knives Out and Murder Mystery
New entries in a popular genre will always be compared to the titans of that genre, but in the case of Murder Mubarak, the similarities to Knives Out and to a slightly lesser extent Murder Mystery are obvious. The eccentric detective investigating a murder among many suspects, the slightly outlandish tone, the limited locations, and the class clashes all conspire to create a particular vibe that is present in Murder Mubarak.
It’s also undeniable that commercially, Knives Out proved that there was still a contemporary audience who are keen for more of this kind of thing, so it makes sense that there would be various imitators trying to emulate the same success.
While any film with a whodunnit premise will be automatically compared to Knives Out, but the format has been around for as long as films have been made. As far back as 1928, the film The Last Warning is often cited as the first mystery of this type, made before the term whodunnit was even coined.
Although a literal translation is difficult, the title of the film translates very loosely into “Congratulations on Murder”.
Cast
The ensemble cast includes:
- Pankaj Tripathi
- Sara Ali Khan
- Vijay Varma
- Suhail Nayvar
- Tisca Chopra
- Sanjay Kapoor
- Karisma Kapoor
- Dimple Kapadia
- Tara Alisha Berry.
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