Review of 36 Days: SonyLiv's Murder Mystery starring Purab Kohli, Neha Sharma is Prolonged and Predictable

The key ingredient to a successful murder mystery is its ability to keep viewers hooked on the whodunnit plot and surprised by every revelation. The best keeps you invested with a healthy dose of adrenaline and a steady drip of anticipation for what will happen next. Sadly, 36 Days, SonyLiv's latest crime series, doesn't score particularly well on these parameters.

In theory, it has all the ingredients needed for a crime thriller: plenty of possibilities, terrific music, and a cinematic image that matches its themes. But in one way or another, they all add to the problem, lacking the finesse and minimal usability needed to be happy.

The show begins with the corpse of a ghost actress named Farah lying in a pool of her own blood, then takes us back 36 days before the incident, painting a picture of what led to this moment of violence, one episode at a time. – a concept the show borrows from the Welsh miniseries 35 Diwrnod, on which it is based.

We are taken to the luxury apartment complex in Goa that Farah has just moved into, and are greeted by the residents, all of whom have twisted stories. You will meet a chauvinistic womanizer, a drug lord, a baker, a trans singer, a successful businesswoman, and a famous microbiologist, among others. Each character is painted in shades of gray and will make you look up, leaving room for the possibility of guilt.

Purab Kohli and Shruti Seth play a seemingly perfect power couple with marital discord in the series.

However, the show falls prey to the classic mistake of stuffing unnecessary tropes into thrillers, just to add more faces to point the wrong finger at. There's a lot going on – police chases, raids, fancy get-togethers, therapy sessions, marital discord – but nothing feels important to the main storyline and fails to deliver the kind of emotional response that successful thrillers do. It seems that the makers were so eager to add disturbing subplots, that they forgot to check the consistency and depth.

For example, a young couple runs away to the beach, running away from security officials. What are you looking for? Neither knows. There is a mouse that the mentally ill character keeps dreaming about. What does it symbolize? We don't know.

The show tries to use sex as a form of self-defense, too. Everyone seems to lust after someone. In the first ten minutes of the series, you will see an old man engaged in a sensual video call with a camgirl. There are gratuitous sex dream sequences, suggestive eye contact, and more.

Even though the show tries hard to justify and connect all these subplots, it always feels forced. Farhana is supposed to be the mysterious new hire, but the show fails to establish her as a mysterious character. As the main plot loses its way, one may lose interest and stop watching. The later episodes are a little better, but it won't matter if the viewers are already watching then. What could have been an impressive series gets lost in poor screenplay, uneven pacing and awkward editing that fails to keep viewers talking. Uncorrectable camera angles and overused background effects don't help either.

Chandan Roy Sanyal's character in the series is chauvinistic, patriarchal, dishonest, and transphobic.

Several talented players were criminally misused, including Sharib Hashmi [Family Man] and Neha Sharma. For the better part of the series, he is used more as a sex player than as an actual character. When he is finally given a few interviews, the script doesn't give him much of a chance to shine. However, there are highlights. While Purab Kohli did a decent job, Shernaz Patel and Faisal Rashid [Monica, O My Darling] the compelling portrayal of the psychologically distressed mother-son duo stood out to me. Despite their limited screen time, they both deliver outstanding performances, bringing depth to their roles and leaving you spellbound every time they're on screen.

The show also features Sushant Divgikar, a popular model and drag queen, named Rani Ko-HE-Nur. Although their singing in the series is good, the acting is not up to par.

Neha Sharma was last seen in JioCinema's legal thriller, Illegal – Justice, Out of Order

The script doesn't make much use of the opportunity to explore the dark reality of transphobia and its terrifying impact on victims. This series shows that transphobic abuse is brought out and transmitted by judicial silence, but the exposure only exposes the issue.

On the other hand, Divgikar's outfits are pleasing to the sore eyes. Whether it's fine clothes or fancy clothes, they handle the clothes with incredible grace and confidence. Sadly, they aren't enough to carry the weight of a flawless series and save it from overall mediocrity.

36 Days is a classic example of how murder mysteries fail to engage an audience. If you're a fan of the genre, I'd suggest skipping this one, as you probably won't find anything to cheer about. However, if you're just looking for a casual weekend watch, or just plan on playing something you can forget about in the background and focus on other important things, it makes for a tolerable one-time watch.

All eight episodes of 36 Days are now streaming on SonyLiv