Rating: **
The Indrani Mukerjea Story finally started streaming on Netflix after being stopped twice by the judiciary.
If the truth be told, the ostensibly buried truth should have remained there. As we watch this devious woman’s highly tangled and frankly sordid life unravel in four episodes of interviews with the people who form the core of this malfunctional family, we realize that the term “malfunctional” was perhaps coined for this weird family of closeted sociopaths, and if not outright homicidal characters then potential assailants with highly scheming minds.
While the first episode lays down the ground rules for the Bora/Mukerjea family(the ground rules being that there are none) the second episode is the Sakshat Prakat moment when the lady at the vortex of the mayhem makes an appearance.
Yes, folks. Brace yourself. For Indrani Mukerjea has given the makers of this misguided crime investigation docu-series a one-to-one. Wow! Several veteran journalists (including one wearing a flaming-red coat as if she was afraid she would catch the chill on a Scottish winter evening) contribute their invaluable inputs on the case.
Some of these mediapersons who have followed the case from the start , sounded contradictory and confused. We can’t blame them for their fuzzy observations: this is an intrinsically befuddling case. What kind of a woman introduces her daughter as her sister and then allegedly murders her?
And why is this woman with her peculiar accent and frightening eyes, being given a voice to have her say? Agreed, everyone deserves to defend herself. But surely, there is a limit to how fair we can be to a criminal mind which contradicts itself every step along the way.
Some years ago, Deepa Mehta made a film on the Nirbhaya case , offering the perpetrators the chance to have their say. I felt the same anger watching the Indrani Mukerjea story.
Some crimes are so reprehensible and unacceptable, to give them any space or importance seems like an act of transgression. No, this lady deserves no patient ear. The one whom I really felt sorry for was Indrani Mukerjea’s son Mikhail Bora. From what he tells us, Mikhail, poor chap, came close to meeting the same fate as his sister.
He is the one who escaped the evil eye.
If only we the audience were that lucky. Why was this docu-series made ? It reveals nothing we don’t know , or want to know. The most truthful moment in the rambling anti-confessional, is the closing line when Ms Mukerjea is asked whether she killed Sheena Bora.
“What a stupid question!” she replies.
So true.