‘Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa’ review: Murder mystery has sharp actors and witty banter

A cosy mystery set in and around a cottage in Khandala seems like a change of pace for audiences bludgeoned by crime shows. Since the tagline of Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa is a “A Moral Tale”, there’s a bit of scheming along with a crime.

Mostly, it’s writer-director Rajat Kapoor trying out another chamber piece after Kadakh (2019), set in a Mumbai apartment during a Diwali party. In the new film, a wedding anniversary celebration hosted by Raman (Neil Bhoopalam) and Jayanthi (Palomi Ghosh) turns sour.

The guests include Raman’s business partner, the eponymous Sohrab (Vinay Pathak), his wife Isha (Koel Purie Rinchet), ailing father (MK Raina), his nurse (Mallika Singh) and Sohrab’s troubled younger brother Arun (Chandrachoor Rai).

There’s also Jayanthi’s sister Suman (Sadiya Siddiqui), her put-upon husband Sandeep (Sharat Katariya) and their mostly silent son (Elgin D’Souza). The friends are Madhavan (Ranvir Shorey), his much younger girlfriend Nazia (Kankana Chakraborty), Kumar (Danish Hussain), the presenter of a sensation-mongering TV show with his partner Naina (Waluscha De Souza), and the psychologist Chandra (Rajat Kapoor). The cottage’s caretaker is Satya (Mahesh Sharma), who takes it upon himself to make cups of tea when the crisis hits.

For Kapoor, who usually makes independent and unpredictable films, Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa must feel like a palate cleanser...

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