In true Agatha Christie-esque manner, we have the small hill station with pretty houses and pretty people, big money and a diverse set of relationships. There is the intriguing stranger, the old lady who sees everything and doesn’t say anything and the wilderness of Ooty that gives the English countryside a run for its money.
There’s big money and big homes with intricate fire places, delicate tea sets and comfortable leather couches. Bloody Brothers makes you want to turn the TV off and read a book. The characters are larger than life, true to some other crime comedies and dark comedies like Knives Out or straight out the series The Thursday Murder Club. Bloody Brothers is dark, funny and atmospheric. The lighting, winding roads and depths of the jungle only add to the mystique and mystery but of course, it is not as smooth as and seamless as its western counterparts of accidental death dark comedies such as Dead to Me .
One night, two brothers, poles apart and hardly ever seen together, are returning from a much needed reunion when they run over an old man. This binds them together in a secret which they then weave a web of lies around to protect themselves from being found out.
Criminal activity aside, Jaideep Ahlawat is believable and menacing yet funny in the big brother with money and zero conscience persona. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is the poorer, devoid of toxic masculinity bookstore owner younger brother, who is mild mannered and goofy, to the point where his screw-ups constantly jeopardise the safety of the two as they evade being found out and sent to jail.
It is an adaptation of an English show Guilt, much like Rudra recently, and seems to have joined a long line of English to Hindi shows in recent years.
Why are we doing this so much, I wonder, when there is an abundance of homegrown original writing and world literature to adapt from that isn’t getting the time of day. Personally, as an adaptation, it does a fair job. There isn’t much to be said about the story that isn’t already plastered all over the internet as the original show has been around for a few years.
Shruti Seth as the unhappy housewife and her own intriguing storyline is a fun bit and all the acting is fairly spot-on with the only exception being Tina Desai, who is almost insufferable in her obvious girl-next-door act that doesn’t fool the audience for even a second. In a cast that is otherwise enjoyable, she is the only who is hardly at all. The set design and production value is quite high and the music too, it fits right in.
Bloody Brothers has a unique Halloween evening quality to it, where everything seems almost as if from The Addams Family Film, everyone a little too bent and absurd in a setting that feels obviously make-belief but that is the design. It is supposed to be a fantasy crime fairyland and for those that enjoy the genre, they will absolutely love this. Having seen the original show in the past, I can safely say that one need not watch both for apart from cultural nuances and mild differences there have been made that bear little to no difference in the story.
For a Holi weekend binge, Bloody Brothers works as fun and captivating enough and as a dark comedy (something we don’t seem to make many of here), it is something different from what we usually get. The show is a breath of fresh air and while it may not be new or groundbreaking, it is entertaining and intriguing enough to spend a lazy Sunday with.
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