Charlie Chopra & The Mystery Of Solang Valley Review: In a show dominated by Wamiqa Gabbi, a few other performers stand out, none more so than Priyanshu Painyuli
Agatha Christie’s The Sittaford Mystery, the source material for this web series, was initially published in 1931, but it has endured as a popular whodunit. Charlie Chopra & the Mystery of Solang Valley gives it a fresh, engaging, and clever makeover.
The six-episode SonyLIV series, which is directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and based on a story he co-wrote with Anjum Rajabali and Jyotsna Hariharan, concentrates on a murder that was predicted and a false arrest that prompts an amateur sleuth to take action in a setting where danger lurks around every corner.
Charlie Chopra & the Mystery of Solang Valley deviates, frequently frothily, from the original book by inventing plot twists and character traits that not only greatly localise the narrative but also bring it up to current for modern tastes. The end result isn’t immediately exciting, but as Charlie Chopra’s investigation progresses, you start to like the programme.
Even if some of the cast members are left to linger on the periphery of the plot, Bhardwaj assembles a cast of seasoned film actors and younger actors who do their part to liven up the proceedings. Not Wamiqa Gabbi however.
The lead actress plays the young investigator with the vivacity of a wide-eyed rookie and the steely resolve of a steely lady searching for the truth in a setting of mistrust and deceit. She is wonderfully full of beans.
Charlie Chopra & the Mystery of Solang Valley substitutes a Himachal Pradesh highland station for snowy Dartmoor. Through the lens of cinematographer Tassaduq Hussain, the location’s muted colour palette gives the series both depth of field and long-lasting visual shine.
The surface is glistening. The aces are in what’s underneath. The tone of delivery is something the series excels at, more so than the richness of the visuals and the interaction of sun and snow, light and shadow, and silences and sounds. Secrets loom over the neighbourhood and the homes that the suspects call home, yet the atmosphere of dread is softened by moments of gentle hilarity that stem from the characters’ sharp angles.
Emily Trefusis, the amateur detective from Agatha Christie, is transformed into Charulata “Charlie” Chopra (Wamiqa Gabbi), a brash Patiala girl who starts looking into the death of a retired brigadier when her fiancé Jimmy Nautiyal (Vivaan Shah), the victim’s nephew and a start-up businessman in need of a large sum of money, is arrested and charged with murder.
A long-dead woman alleges, through a child who has been possessed, during a seance during a weekend gathering in the Solang Valley home of a cranky psychic (Naseeruddin Shah), that Brigadier Meherbaan Singh Rawat (Gulshan Grover) is deceased at his Manali villa.
In fact, the retired army officer is discovered in a pool of blood by his best friend Colonel Anand Barua (Baharul Islam), who risks his life to get to the cottage in treacherous weather. Hanif Sheikh, the brigadier’s longtime factotum, and a weary police investigator named Narayan Joshi (Ghanshyam Garg) join him in breaking into the home.
Everyone there at the séance—which, incidentally, opens with a similar ceremonial assembly to that in Kenneth Branagh’s best Agatha Christie adaptation to date, A Haunting in Venice, which is still playing in theatres even though The Hallowe’en Party and the Sittaford Mystery were written forty years apart—is a suspect.
The wealthy brigadier, who Charlie’s inquiry reveals to be a man with more than his fair share of skeletons in the closet, stands to gain from his death, as does everyone else. Charlie is adamant about doing everything it takes to identify the true offender and establish Jimmy’s innocence because everyone close to the deceased, including his family and friends, has something to conceal.
Charlie investigates the circumstances behind Brigadier Rawat’s death with the help of obnoxious television journalist Sitaram Bisht (Priyanshu Painyuli), with whom she gets off to a bad start. The Old Manali Police station is eager to bury Jimmy.
As she searches for answers, Charlie must contend with a number of issues, including a ski resort that may have reached a dead end, a covert marijuana operation, an insurance scam, two fugitives hidden in plain sight, a schizophrenic receiving psychiatric care, a war refugee, and many other things. The girl jumps in headfirst, disregarding the dangers, as lies and half-truths emerge from the closet.
Both of Jimmy’s older siblings, Billu (Imaad Shah) and Saloni (Paoli Dam), are subject to suspicion. Charlie is also interested in Saloni’s husband Manas Dabral (Chandan Roy Sanyal), a writer with a history of failures, as well as a number of other family members, including the brigadier’s younger brother Mohan (Lalit Parimoo), his psychoanalyst-wife Janki (Neena Gupta), and their sick son Varun (Pulkit Makol), who needs a costly kidney transplant.
That is not all, either. The semi-classical vocalist Lara Dutta and her daughter Wasima (Bhagyashree Tarke), the enigmatic Miss Bharucha (Ratna Pathak Shah), the Negis (Amitabh Bhattacharjee and Damini Basu), who rent a cottage from the brigadier, and, undoubtedly, the deceased man’s Man Friday, Hanif Sheikh, are all on Charlie’s list of suspects.
While adding creative flourishes that give the story his own unique spin, Bhardwaj keeps the traditional Agatha Christie structure. The episode begins with a murder, followed by a few more demises, and the plot is riddled with red herrings, just like in the most recent Hercule Poirot case adaption, A Haunting in Venice.
The remainder of the arc differs significantly. The show’s strong title track, written by Vishal Bhardwaj and performed by Sunidhi Chauhan, sets the mood and introduces Charlie Chopra, her address, and her propensity for challenging cases. The protagonist then advances the show’s upbeat tone by frequently turning to the camera and joking with the viewers.
The effect of distance is underpinned by delectable whimsy, which in addition to highlighting the artifice in the adaptation gives the audience a sense of familiarity and empathy for the charming Charlie Chopra, a girl who is constantly only a murderous assault away from serious physical danger.
Despite Wamiqa Gabbi’s dominance of the programme, a couple of the other performers shine, none more so than Priyanshu Painyuli. If Charlie Chopra & the Mystery of Solang Valley’s cast has any weak spots, it’s mostly due of how full it is, making it impossible to give each character equal weight.
Neena Gupta and Ratna Pathak Shah, who play supporting roles, both have their moments, although Lara Dutta and Paoli Dam could have used more screen time. But when everything is said and done, the show’s strengths far surpass its weaknesses. Watchable throughout.
Cast:
Vivaan Shah, Imaad Shah, Paoli Dam and Priyanshu Painyuli, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Wamiqa Gabbi, Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Neena Gupta, Lara Dutta, and Gulshan Grover.
Director:
Bhardwaj, Vishal
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