Charlie Chopra and The Mystery of Solang Valley review: A fresh take on whodunits

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, Charlie Chopra… is an official adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic The Sittaford Mystery. The series, which marks Bhardwaj’s OTT debut, features a star-studded ensemble cast, including Naseeruddin Shah, Lara Dutta, Neena Gupta, Ratna Pathak Shah and Gulshan Grover.

The show opens with an evening soirée which turns into a séance real quick when a local psychic Dr Rai (Naseeruddin Shah) summons the ghost of Lady Rose. Waseema Hussain, the daughter of Wilayat Hussain (Lara Dutta), is possessed by the ghost. She predicts that Brigadier Rawat (Gulshan Grover), who lives in the fictional Rockford Estate in Manali, is dead. The prediction turns out to be true; the Brigadier is murdered in cold blood and has left behind a massive fortune for his family. But is there more to this murder than meets the eye? 

Enter Charlie Chopra, daughter of Dolly Chopra, Mohalla Gaddakhana, Near Sheraan Wala Gate, Patiala, Punjab — 147001. This is Charlie’s official introduction in the show and also the lyrics of the title song, crooned by Sunidhi Chauhan, which is quite an earworm. The adage ““Case jinna mushkil, fees unni cat (Tougher the case, lower the fees)” is repeated multiple times throughout the show as Charlie goes on solving one thread of the case after another till there are no loose ends left.

In a Space of her Own

Charlie Chopra breaks the fourth wall plenty of times. Her introduction itself is unexpected: “I am talking to you,” she addresses the viewers directly while breaking into a naagin dance at a Punjabi wedding. The fourth wall-breaking, direct-to-camera conversation seems to be inspired from Enola Holmes. At one point, Billu (Imaaduddin Shah), quite shamelessly asks about the fortune Brigadier Rawat left him in the will, barely twenty four hours after he is murdered in cold blood. Charlie looks into the camera and says, “Prah hove teh eho jea (Oh my, such a loving brother)!” Whenever something doesn’t go as planned, Charlie exclaims, “Behen di lakkad” while breaking the fourth wall. This becomes her go-to catchphrase which she uses aplenty whenever things go south during investigation.

In an era where Geet is a much-celebrated manic pixie dream girl and Enola Holmes a revered detective, it isn’t easy to carve a niche for Charlie, a character that has Geet’s optimism and Holmes’s detective skills. Still, at no point does Charlie seem to borrow from the two. She is headstrong, intuitive and despite the inevitable comparisons with iconic characters, Charlie makes space for herself with each scene and each cigar sniff.

What starts as Charlie using her detective instincts to help a groom find his shoes during the wedding ceremony (much to the dismay of the bridesmaids), metamorphoses into a full-blown vocation when Charlie realizes her fiancé Jimmy Nautiyal (Vivaan Shah) has been falsely implicated in the murder of Brigadier Rawat. Soon, she familiarizes herself with the inhabitants of Solang Valley. Every inhabitant has skeletons in their closet which they want to keep hidden from the world or, as Mrs Bharucha says, “Yaha sabki daal mein kaala hai (Everyone’s a suspect here)”.

Mrs Bharucha, essayed by the versatile Ratna Pathak Shah, is a wheelchair-bound septuagenarian who lives alone in her apartment with her caregiver, Ronny, except she isn’t really wheelchair-bound. Mrs Bharucha is faking her disability to claim insurance money and her caregiver is her drug dealer who supplies her with copious amounts of CBD. Mrs Bharucha helps Charlie with a clue and seems like just the ganja-smoking, insurance defrauding grandma one would aspire to have. 

Lara Datta plays Wilayat Hussain, a ghazal singer from Lucknow, whose daughter Waseema was possessed by Lady Rose during the séance. It is later revealed that Wilayat was once Colonel Rawat’s love interest. Soon, Wilayat realizes that the colonel wants to keep her singing talent from the rest of the world. Eventually, both Wilayat and Waseema are cut off financially by the colonel and are now forced to live a life of indignity where the two keep running from pillar to post to make ends meet. In most scenes, Datta is harmonizing to vocals by Rekha Bhardwaj. Other times, she plays a protective mother shielding her schizophrenic daughter from the evil world.

In the Indian socio-cultural context

The show also briefly touches on the Bangladeshi migrant crisis. Brigadier Rawat’s housekeeper Hanif is a Bangladeshi migrant and is considered prime suspect in his murder. At one point, Richcha Chaddha makes a cameo appearance in the show as Charlie’s mother, Dolly Chopra. In a flashback, we get to see Charlie and her mother Dolly solve a case in the middle of the night. Seeing a mother pass her knowledge to her daughter is endearing. Shortly after, Charlie’s mother is murdered in cold blood.

What one loved about the show is its realistic portrayal of the Indian police force and how they are mostly dismissive of detectives. Agatha Christie’s novels are mostly set in Europe where detectives work in tandem with the police. The synergy between the investigating detectives and the law enforcement help both departments do their job better. In an Indian context, this may not be true. At more than one instance, Charlie’s hints are dismissed by Inspector Narayan, who is investigating the murder. And since our detective is a woman, of course Charlie’s MMS is leaked just when she is too close to finding out about the truth of the case. Set in Devon, South West England, Bhardwaj adapts Agatha Christie’s The Sittaford Mystery to the Indian socio-cultural context and keeps intact the many pitfalls of women detectives existing in an Indian setting. 

The aesthetic of the show is very Haider-esque. The rugged snow-covered mountains, comfy-looking woolens and hoodies as attire, and warm interiors (and the artwork in the opening credits) will remind of the Kashmir Valley where the iconic Bollywood adaptation of Hamlet was filmed. At six episodes of 40-minutes each, the show doesn’t get difficult to follow. It gives the viewer just enough breathing space to make their own guesses about who the murderer could be without overwhelming them with information and clues, crucial for whodunits.

A Detective is Born 

Besides Lara Datta and Ratna Pathak Shah, the show also stars Neena Gupta as Janki, the dark horse who murdered the murderer. Janki remains in the backdrop for a considerable part of the series. In the penultimate episode, it is revealed that she used hypnotic triggers to make Waseema have a psychotic breakdown during the seance. Janki, much like Nicole and Wilayat, loved Brigadier Rawat and bore his child. When Brigadier refused to father the child, she married his brother and raised the kid with him. 

The scene where Neena Gupta confesses to being the mastermind behind Brigadier Rawat and Colonel Baruah’s murder is a tearjerker. “Mujhe apna haq chahiye. Varun ka haq (I need my share, I need Varun’s share)”. Janki carries the pain of being betrayed by a lover and the guilt of having ruined multiple lives to save her son.

Gupta essays the pain to such perfection that at one point, one couldn’t help but root for her character — a woman who faced the brunt of preserving her bodily autonomy, of refusing to abort her kid and subsequently failing to get the maintenance she deserved. Gupta’s confession is interspersed with visuals of a young Janki and Brigadier making love accompanied by hauntingly beautiful vocals by Rekha Bhardwaj. The show belongs as much to Janki and Wilayat as Charlie.

The final episode ends with Sitaram, Charlie’s journalist friend, handing her a newspaper with a headline which reads, “A Detective is Born,” and one couldn’t help but vehemently nod in agreement. If made into a series, Charlie Chopra… might just go a long way. A detective is born. Tougher the case, higher will be her fees (as it should be).

Charlie Chopra and The Mystery of Solang Valley is streaming now on SonyLiv.