As my readers are well aware, I enjoy watching whodunits where a shrewd sleuth unravels the mystery behind a murder and exposes the culprit. However, does this often happen in reality? Talvar, a Bollywood film based on an actual murder case, blends fact and fiction in its plot and, to some extent, answers this very question.

Based on a 2008 murder case in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi, India, Talvar, written by Meghna Gulzar with a screenplay by Vishal Bhardwaj, features Irrfan Khan in the lead.

The movie begins with Ashwin Kumar (Irrfan Khan), Joint Director of the CBI, reluctantly taking on a murder case. The plot then shifts to a flashback, where a fifteen-year-old girl, Shruti Tandon, is found murdered in her bed in a suburban apartment.

Officer Chaurasia (Gajraj Rao) and his team arrive at the scene and conduct a completely botched investigation. At first, after a brief interrogation of Shruti’s parents, Nutan (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Ramesh (Neeraj Kabi), and with the absence of Khempal, the Tandons’ man-servant, Chaurasia concludes that Khempal is the murderer. Kanhaiya, Ramesh’s assistant, convinces Chaurasia that Khempal was having an illicit affair with the late Shruti.

However, Khempal’s murdered corpse is found on the terrace of the apartment building. This time, Chaurasia arrests Ramesh, based on Kanhaiya’s allegation that Shruti’s murder was an honor killing after Ramesh found out about the affair between Khempal and Shruti.

Chaurasia leaves behind a compromised crime scene, tarnished by the presence of the media, neighbors, and relatives. With the media victim-blaming Shruti, there is a major public outcry, forcing the police to hand the case over to the CBI, the equivalent of the FBI in India.

With Ashwin Kumar at the helm, the CBI investigates the case. Ashwin exonerates Ramesh and reprimands Chaurasia. Even though there are only a handful of suspects in the case, the bureaucracy of the CBI and the initial blunders by Chaurasia prove to be major stumbling blocks.

This movie is a sobering reminder that, in reality, even with a competent investigator, a whodunit with few suspects can go astray due to numerous factors. Irrfan Khan plays the role of a dedicated police officer, doing all he can to solve the crime, to perfection. On the personal side, he is also going through a divorce. The rest of the cast delivers fine performances as well. Vishal Bhardwaj’s screenplay is slick, with a few light moments, and Meghna Gulzar has done an excellent job directing the movie.

The title of the movie is particularly interesting. In the movie, it is used as a metaphor to as the sword of the blind woman of justice. Interestingly, Talvar is also the family name of the family that was unfortunately affected by the murder that this movie was based on. You can draw you own conclusions from here.

Talvar is a must-see for all lovers of true crime and investigative thrillers. It is a whodunit with a healthy dose of reality thrown in.