India West By

SAN LEANDRO: With the increased attention being paid to acts of police misconduct in the U.S., India and countries across the globe, the release of Indian actor Irrfan Khan’s new murder mystery, “Talvar,” released on Oct 2.

Based on the double murder of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and her family’s 45-year-old domestic helper Hemraj Banjade in Noida, India in 2008, director Meghna Gulzar’s “Talvar” is a gripping, well-researched crime thriller that unravels the botched police investigation that followed.

“This is a very renowned and mysterious case, which didn’t have closure,” Khan told India-West by phone. “Everyone knows about this case in India and how it kept on changing — the perception of the case, the perception of the crime. It’s just a mystery about which people still wonder what happened.”

In the film, doctors Ramesh (Neeraj Kabi) and Nutan Tandon (Konkona Sen Sharma) discover their daughter Shruti dead in bed with her throat precisely slit one morning, and a search for the domestic help, Khempal, believed to have killed her, quickly ensues.

But shortly after the Noida police’s investigation begins, Khempal’s dead body is discovered on the terrace, leading investigators, before analyzing any evidence, to next suspect the parents.

Using the same style of narration as legendary director Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 Japanese crime drama, “Rashomon,” in which one crime is depicted from several contradictory points of view, scriptwriter Vishal Bhardwaj reveals details that never surfaced to depict the three investigations that took place after the murder and the conclusions of each one.

The film starts off slow, but picks up quickly and flows well despite the innumerable twists and turns that will keep you in suspense until the last minute.

At the same time, the filmmakers expose how the media, politics and even the public can fuel the frenzy clouding the truth and leading to a miscarriage of justice.

“We already have a kind of perception about what happened in the crime because the media mostly followed one version of it,” Khan explained. “The other investigations were not discussed in the media that much, so we had one perception, one angle.”

The film leaves no one looking like a hero and will leave any viewers unfamiliar with the case or the Indian legal system appalled (not that the American legal system is much better).

Not only is the crime scene compromised by the Noida police’s initial investigation, but the means employed to acquire evidence by Central Bureau of Investigation officer Ashwin Kumar (Khan) are questionable at best.

For instance, Ashwin uses narco tests — interrogations of suspects under the influence of a psychoactive truth serum — as a means of collecting evidence from his suspects.

Though Ashwin’s evidence is ill-gotten, his investigation seems to be headed in the right direction.

On the other hand, the other CBI investigative team seems to conclude that the parents are guilty of the murder and do everything to find or create evidence that will match that account.

“Through the case, the film also talks about the system,” Khan said. “That is much more important for me — how the system works.”

He expressed the hope that the film will open up a much-needed discussion about the antiquated British system governing India and the amendments that could make it run more smoothly and prevent absurd results.

“There are things which suited the British government, which might not be relevant in today’s time,” Khan said. “There are a lot of things which need to be done … Easy or hard, it is necessary.”

Khan’s character, Ashwin, is based on the real investigating officer who Khan said he had several long sessions with in order to understand his perspective and what he was to portray.

Because “Talvar” is recounting a real case, the actor said the filmmakers made a special effort to thoroughly research the case before the shoot happened and went back to add more detail to the film later.

“Once we shot the film, we had a discussion and wanted to include one more angle to it that we felt was necessary,” Khan told India-West. “Then we had to again go into five months of research because meeting all those people now was a difficult task. And then we somehow arranged to meet all of them.”

The makers even rewrote the climax, an engrossing 13-minute long confrontation between the investigative teams for which the actors deserve tremendous credit.

Khan said he believes “Talvar,” which premiered to rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a part of a new, positive trend in Indian cinema resulting from a new generation of filmmakers and audiences demanding diversity.

“The film could engage a universal audience and that was great about the film,” Khan told India-West. “And it’s also a good for an Indian film to do that because we still have the perception of the song-and-dance kind of films, but in India things are changing.”