STORY: When a young IIT professional attempts to leave an illicit office affair, things go disastrously wrong. Will he be able to clear his name and/or emerge uninjured from the horrific mess?
REVIEW: One of the major factors in creating a binge-worthy thriller is unpredictability. The audience is constantly on the edge of their seats, attempting to guess and figure out what will happen next. For the most part, director Vasan Bala (of ‘Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota’ fame) and his writer Yogesh Chandekar get that aspect right, but they fall short of crafting an equally captivating plot and its execution. Jayant (Rajkummar Rao), a skilled robotics expert who has shrewdly climbed the corporate ladder at his organisation, is central to the plot. Winning the CEO’s trust and his daughter’s love has landed him a high-paying job, but his success has also brought him an equal number of foes and frenemies. In the midst of all of this, he becomes sexually entangled with Monica (Huma Qureshi), the office’s hottest female, who is infamous for her flings with various guys at her workplace. But her greed gets the best of her, and a devious plan is set in motion that quickly spirals out of control, with dead bodies piling up.
This whodunit becomes dirtier and more complicated from here on out. The unexpected turns are entertaining at first, but as more characters are introduced, the narrative begins to lose steam. As you wait for the big reveal, the plot twists become increasingly weird and implausible, and even the unpredictability begins to disappear. Before the last act, one can readily understand the conclusion, and now it’s just a matter of getting it over with.
Rajkummar Rao has done so many similar films and roles that it appears the actor is no longer attempting to be unique. Huma Qureshi shines the brightest and appears to be having the most fun playing Monica, a well-defined and forceful character. Radhika Apte’s part as a cocky detective is borderline irritating, while Sikander Kher plays a frustrated heir of a firm whose owner and father clearly don’t respect his presence. A spate of cameos by actresses such as Radhika Mandan and Gulshan Deviah adds little value. The title tune and the background score are possibly the most appealing components of this clumsy Netflix thriller.
OTT platforms are brimming with gripping and grim murder mysteries of all varieties. So, even on its own platform, where we’ve seen far better, ‘Monica O my dear’ has a lot to compete with.