Murder 2: Eunuch Serial Killer. Review on Murder 2

Now, don’t read that as Unique Serial Killer. But that may also ring true. The tone of the movie is set right from the first frame – Yana Gupta, a sex worker dancing seductively. She is ignorant that a eunuch serial killer Prashant Narayanan (Dheeraj Pandey) is waiting to butcher her to pieces and tape her shrieks begging for mercy. He does exactly this and more (gore) and enjoys himself in his loneliness. He is a drag queen. He dresses up for the occasion too all decked up in red, jewellery, makeup, lipstick, nail polish and wig and is almost effeminate. He butchers like someone slices bread.

How can he share his misery with anyone? Even his parents are unaware of his mental state and force him to marry. He turns a sadist and burns his wife with cigarette butts. His torture turns her into a wreck. The parents instead of getting him see a shrink, show him the door. He goes to the hijras and gets himself turned into a proper eunuch. His co-worker says that working in a sculptor’s shop, he would make demon (chudail, rakshasi) statues instead of a devi. He worships devil. And when the shop owner objects, he kills him. A sex worker, whom he calls for services narrates that he was a sadist and was unable to ‘perform’. A psychiatrist (Shweta Kawatra) who delves deeper into his abnormal psyche almost gets killed.

And when Emraan Hashmi (Arjun Bhagwat, ex-cop) and Pandey accidentally meet, the cell phone connects them. The game is almost over and both guys land in the jail.Here Pandey plays mind games. He fakes amnesia and displays a devious mind –he truly is living the role. This is almost scary. Under questioning, he accepts his crime but soon he denies it all. And to save him arrives an influential eunuch Nirmala Pandit, who too is unaware of his (d)evilish self. Taking him away from the police station, they go to the temple where Reshma (Pandey's previous victim) is seeking refuge with the pujari. The demon in Pandey raises its ugly head. And at one go, he kills all the three and returns to his den. To seek revenge on Arjun, he invites Priya (Jacqueline Fernandez) on a modeling assignment. But Arjun arrives before Priya. A fight ensues and the bad guy breathes his last. And the movie ends on a ‘happy’ note. Poetic justice has been done. But has justice been done really?

Murder 2 is definitely not a sequel unless you can call it one as a popular song of Murder is played in this one. But it can be called a “sequel” as there was only a murder in Murder and in this one there are murders galore. This is a movie that stands alone (and tall) and can be watched again and again and still seem fresh. And the villain walks away with our sympathy just like Shahrukh Khan in Darr. Comparing Prashant Narayanan’s Dheeraj Pandey with Sadashiv Amrapurkar’s Maharani in Sadak would be grossly unfair as Narayanan is not only a eunuch, he is psychotic misogynist. Although Mukesh Bhatt says the movie is inspired by the notorious Nithari killings, it is actually a major copy of South Korean movie Chugyeogja/The Chaser (2008) with minor changes here and there. Even the movie posters are copied from another South Korean film Bad Guy (2002).

Director Mohit Suri deserves kudos for making an exceptional movie even before he turned 30. This is incidentally his 7th movie in as many years. Mahesh Bhatt’s Vishesh Films is certainly turning vishesh (special) for doling out tasty and unique fare. If last week belonged to Imran Khan (Delhi Belly), this week belongs to Imran (sorry, Emraan) Hashmi. Or shall I say, Prashant Narayanan takes a march over Emraan. It is a battle between a serial kisser and an emerging serial killer. Could someone answer why our normal society still makes fun of eunuchs instead of treating them with empathy as another human being albeit a different one?

Seeing Pandey killed, does not leave the viewer satisfied. A killer has been killed. His crime has been paid for by his life. But what about the person, who has been dealing with an abnormality for which no treatment has been sought. Doesn’t he deserve mercy? Had he been treated, could he become a normal person? Why was he denied a chance and turned into an animal unleashed on helpless beings? Isn’t normal society crueler than Pandey himself? As a helpless person, Pandey tugs at our heart strings just like SRK did inDarr. He didn’t deserve to die. He deserved to be treated. But he had degenerated to such a state where death alone was his cure. Is Pandey a criminal? Well, that is left for the viewer to decide.

But Prashant Narayanan’s Dheeraj Pandey has given Bollywood a new villain, who will always be uneasily remembered. For deviant characters leave this indelible stamp, which will not be easily erased just like their on-screen crimes.Murder 2 has Prashant Narayanan written all over it. Terror has a new name. This villain is not menacing but his devil-may-care killings curdle our blood. And his victims’ shrieks will forever ring loud. If Prashant Narayanan likes sounds in real life, his cell phone will not stop ringing for a long time from now on.