The Buckingham Murders Review: Kareena Kapoor’s Missed Opportunity

After watching the much-hyped Kareena Kapoor Khan-starrer investigative thriller The Buckingham Murders on a weekday late at night—the fact that there are no daytime showings can be behind some of my gripes with the movie, but not all—I thought about how I felt about it. 

With rising communal tension making the media rounds these days, this movie picked the right moment to send a message. I was really excited to watch it since, like everyone else, I’ve also decided to be an expert on social commentary. 

The diaspora that calls the UK home sure looks like us, and many of them are just like us. But there are subtle differences, especially in second—or third-generation South Asians, that become apparent to recent ‘off-the-boat’ immigrants like me, whose ears prick and nostrils flare when they pick up the scent of haldi. 

So, who better to pass judgment on a movie that shows the experience of a foreign community? After having lived with the Angraiz for a while, I feel that I’m an expert on everything British and am quick to pass judgment on portrayals that leave a lot to be desired. But with this movie, I didn’t have to try much. Instead, I fired up my computer and sought help from Google Translate on how to say nakal ke liye bhi aqal chahiye hoty hai. 

Here’s what Google bhaiyya suggested: A nickel also requires intelligence.

As I was about to tear my thinning hair out, I realized that my AI-powered friend had hit the nail on the head. That’s what this almost two-hour lackluster mystery had ended up achieving, as its box office numbers are proving. 

So, without any more hand wringing and hair pulling, let’s get down to how this Hindi-Mare of Easttown failed to live up to the hype.

There’s a worldwide following for investigative thrillers, police procedurals, and whodunnits in cinema, and of late, I’ve noticed this gradual shift in Bollywood towards the genre as well. While it’s a welcome development with some genuinely wonderful additions, I feel that the industry is still not quite ready to shed its tried and tested tropes of masala, over-the-top emotions, dumbed-down two-dimensional characters, and over-explanations. 

‘The Buckingham Murders‘ is produced by a collaboration that I never would have imagined for a movie like this:  Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ekta Kapoor, and Shobha Kapoor. Ok, fine, greater results have come from stranger bedfellows. It was director Hansal Mehta who gave us such brilliant movies like Shahid, City Lights, and Omerta that I placed a lot of faith in them. But, whether it was working with a much bigger star such as Kareena Kapoor or him testing the waters in a new genre, the overall effect wasn’t something I’d keep in his greatest hits collection.

In The Buckingham Murders, Jaspreet Bhamra, a grieving police officer, relocates from her hometown to High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, after losing her son in a tragic incident. Despite her demotion from Detective Inspector to Detective Sergeant, Jaspreet sees the move as a way to cope with her trauma. Her new supervisor, DI Hardy, assigns her to a missing child case on her first day. The child, Ishpreet Kohli, was last seen at Totteridge Rye Park, and after an exhaustive search, his body was discovered in a car belonging to Akram Khan.

As the investigation unfolds, Akram reveals he had lent the car to his nephew Saqib, who becomes the primary suspect but refuses to cooperate. Complicating matters, an old feud between the child’s father, Daljeet, and Saqib’s father, Saleem, reignites, sparking communal tensions in the community. Jaspreet, however, senses that the case is more complex than it appears. As she digs deeper, she faces resistance from Hardy, who dismisses her instincts at every turn. The story builds as Jaspreet uncovers hidden truths while navigating her grief and the growing unrest.

Have you ever experienced the feeling you get when you’ve eaten the same food so many times that you can almost break down each ingredient and tell when it will hit your taste buds? That’s what tropes are in any creative field. In movies, every genre has its specific tropes. It is what it is because in capable hands, it works. But watching a Bollywood movie attempt at an investigative thriller set in the UK, I was reminded of Rani asking for burnt garlic and ginger to put on her food in Queen.   

For starters, can we do away with the grieving/burnt out/struggling protagonist who just seems to land in a case that mirrors their internal trauma? I might’ve let it go if it weren’t so obvious and poorly done. Why can’t we have an officer who just loves what they do and everything is good at home? The job is just their job; it doesn’t have to complete them or account for whatever crap they’re dealing with after work hours? Movies like these make people like me feel like we’re missing out on the excitement and fulfillment. So the next time my line manager asks me for the waterproof boot listings, I have to walk a mile in stiff steel-toed boots that give me bunyons before I can write two sentences.

And then there’s the office dynamic with a boss who doesn’t like you/your style and is constantly shooting you down. Again, maybe the damage had already been done by the time viewers meet DI Hardy, but c’mon! It might’ve been believable if there was a more genuine attempt to show why the two didn’t get along. What I mean is that Bollywood doesn’t do shades of flawed people. We’re told to either like them or hate them. It’s time we moved on from such binary options. For a movie that attempted to talk about a range of trending social topics, I expected more.

Related: Jaane Jaan Review: Another Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer, Another Lost Opportunity

First, there was Pooh in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and then Geet in Jab We Met, and whatever came after that didn’t really matter to a legion of fans who’ve watched Kareena Kapoor Khan evolve into a formidable force on the big screen. For much of her career, she’s coasted for long stretches on versions of those two iconic characters. So when she tries to portray a more somber and restrained person, it will take some time for people to adjust to Geet being morose. For the most part, though, she does a commendable job, and there are shades of her other serious roles in movies like Omkara and Udta Punjab here, but it’s just that I have trouble fitting her into the role of a Jas. 

It’s the spoken English that just doesn’t sound right if you’ve lived here for even a year that Hindi actors just haven’t pulled off convincingly. Strangely enough, their bad accents even make me doubt actual British actors in the movie as cheap replicas. 

Look, it might be just me, but I felt there were contours of Kate Winslet’s jaw-dropping performance in Mare of Easttown that were being used as a muse in The Buckingham Murders—a fact that Khan herself alluded to in a recent interview. And while that is a great goal to have, this is where we come to the ‘naqal ke liye aqal’ phrase and Google’s apt translation. 

It’s all well and good to have aspirations. But when you’re trying to depict a town where every character is hiding something, perhaps a run time of a little over two hours doesn’t do justice. And I’m being kind here because I have faith in Hansal Mehta. But honestly, all the characters seemed caricaturish, and the movie veered into preachy overtones and theatrics.

The Buckingham Murders marks a praiseworthy entry into the thriller genre, offering what I’d call a commendable attempt at emotional complexity and some mediocre performances. But as a standalone film, let’s just say that if I wanted to sit back and enjoy a murder mystery, this wouldn’t be the movie I’d put on.

For me, it leaves a lot of room for improvement. The story starts slow, unraveling the psychological and emotional layers of Jaspreet Bhamra, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan, who delivers a nuanced and powerful portrayal of a grieving mother. She is the spoon that stirs the cream, and if the movie has any staying power, it will be due to her desi Winslet ala Easttown. Ranveer Brar also proves that there is a future outside the kitchen for him as he performs well as a grieving father. 

Hansal Mehta’s direction is steady and keeps the tension alive, though it falls just short of the impact one might expect, especially in critical moments that could have used a more potent emotional punch. The cinematography is commendable, and Aseem Arrora’s screenplay balances the character-driven emotional depth with the unfolding mystery, though the deliberate pacing may feel too slow for some viewers.

Themes such as the immigrant experience and the pursuit of closure add depth to the narrative, but the film doesn’t fully achieve the powerful resonance it aims for. Still, The Buckingham Murders is an intriguing, slow-burn thriller with enough complexity to engage audiences, even if it leaves you wanting a bit more. If you’re a Bollywood fan and are just starting in the investigative thriller/police procedural genre, this might be a good addition, but for everyone else, I suggest skipping it . 

Final Verdict: We give it a 2 out of 5 stars