‘The Buckingham Murders’ review: An unfussy police procedural with a dodgy heroine

Despite its title, The Buckingham Murders isn’t about a series of deaths at the British monarchy’s seat of power. Rather, Hansal Mehta’s new movie is set in Buckinghamshire, miles away from London. Here, a typical specimen of the troubled police officer beloved of crime fiction investigates a boy’s murder, all the while trying to forget the death of her own son.

Jasmeet (Kareena Kapoor Khan), who smiles only in flashbacks, is attached to an investigation into Ishpreet’s death on the day she arrives in Buckinghamshire. Jasmeet has to deal with fraught nerves, painful memories and competition from her colleague Hardy (Ash Tandon).

The case draws attention to the troubled marriage of Ishpreet’s parents Daljeet (Ranveer Brar) and Preeti (Prabhleen Sandhu). When a Muslim known to the family is arrested as a suspect, communal tensions break out in a town already on the edge because of earlier riots in Leicester.

The Buckingham Murders is in English as well as Hindi in keeping with its mostly South Asian characters. From a distance, Hansal Mehta examines themes related to injustice that could easily apply to an Indian setting too. Aseem Arrora’s screenplay adds sociology to criminology, with prejudice, misogyny and a rush to judgement among the ideas that elevate a routine police procedural.

The plain-looking...

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