India, March 20 -- As someone who needs an excuse to complain about how terrible the cinematic adaptations of Anuja Chauhan's brilliant novels have been so far, I expected very little from Murder Mubarak (2024) which is based on Club You To Death (2021). Set in Delhi Turf Club in Lutyens Delhi - which bears resemblance to Delhi Gymkhana Club - the novel is a whodunnit in which a desi Hercule Poirot, ACP Bhavani Singh solves the murder mystery after the club's zumba trainer is killed.

As can be understood, the primary focus of the novel is not the murder in itself, but rather, the absurdities of the high society it is set in. Even though I would any day reread an Anuja Chauhan novel including this one, Murder Mubarak did not create a last...