‘Search: The Naina Murder Case’: Murder case unsolved, join the search

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.

A farewell cake and a new posting in cybercrime await her. Only, before she can bid goodbye to the city and save her crumbling marriage, the Naina murder case holds her back. Her superior has greater faith in her abilities to crack the case than in her successor, the brash ACP Jai Kanwal (Surya Sharma).

Together, they set out on their crime-solving mission. Before the why, where, when are decoded, we learn that both follow different approaches. She goes by the rulebook, which includes not offering false hope to the victim’s family. For him, protocols don’t matter and he believes that culprits need to be thrashed first and evidence will follow. Indeed, they are likely to get on each other’s nerves, but win us over with their onscreen equation as co-professionals.

The sterling Konkona anchors the taut show. There are many layers to her character and her performance, too. Battling the professional-personal dilemma, she sinks into her nuanced part like a true and immersive actor that she is. Pitted against a consummate artiste like Konkona, Surya holds fort and is certainly not a sidekick. Any wonder some of his dialogues go like, “Main yahan sidekick banne nahin aaya hoon,” and sound loaded with meta-reference.

Though he gets to utter some cryptic amusing one-liners and makes us chuckle more than once, at points the bluster inbuilt in his character does get a bit jarring. Nevertheless, the investigating duo’s sleuthing skills keep the curiosity and engagement quotient alive.

Director Rohan Sippy has shown us his prowess in handling crime thrillers as well as adaptations in several seasons of ‘Criminal Justice’. Once again, he proves his mettle in transposing the original material to an Indian setting. ‘Search: The Naina Murder Case’ is based on Danish series ‘Forbrydelsen’ (The Killing). The adaptation credit goes to writers Radhika Anand and Shreya Karunakaram, making it feel unmistakably Indian, with many local nuances thrown in. Each episode also unveils the social and cultural dynamics of a newly changing India, with special focus on the young.

Indeed, ‘The Naina Murder Case’ is no ‘Adolescence’. Yet the writers do bring in the gnawing generation gap and how parents are often clueless about the goings-on in their children’s lives. The victim’s mother (the adept Iravati Harshe) does not even know her dead daughter had a boyfriend or another mobile phone. The mother in ace police officer Das is aghast as she discovers her daughter’s selfies. Das views them as vulgar, while for her daughter, these are tools to build self-confidence and deal with body issues.

A crime drama is rarely without its political axis. Right from the onset, we are introduced to a yuva leader, Tushar Surve (Shiv Panditt). Social media is his turf war, what with his campaign managers spearheading his drive and boosting his image in the virtual world. Surve incidentally is the first one to come under our radar of suspicion. His goody-goody image is possibly a smokescreen, or probably not.

Red herrings anyway are bound to abound… as with any murder mystery, darts fly around and fingers point in many directions. Each time we think the Das-Kanwal jodi has hit the nail on the head, the accused gets a clean chit. A bit frustrating not only for the sleuths on the job, but we as viewers too feel cheated. Even more exasperating is the fact that after the six episodes in the first season, we are served a cliffhanger with a teasing promise: the search for Naina’s killer continues.

After already investing hours, can’t say we are dying to catch on the final suspense. But, as of now, concise episodes offer enough excitement, wisecracks and some home truths too.