Aahana Swrup
The Netflix Hindi-language film, ‘Murder Mubarak,’ sets the perfect stage for a whodunnit within the elite borders of The Royal Delhi Club, populated with bold, shifty personalities and one dead body. After a lively party at the club, one gym trainer, Leo Matthews, is found dead, bringing ACP Bhavani Singh to the location’s snooty society. From men with royal bloodlines and spoilt brats to a straight-laced lawyer and his vibrant ex, the club’s inner circle all seem to have some suspicious connection with Leo, marking every individual as a suspect in Bhavani’s eyes. Thus, as the police officer unravels the convoluted threads working behind Leo’s murders, more secrets come out in the open.
With an enthralling murder mystery at its center set within a lucrative society hinging upon gossip and individual secret ‘Murder Mubarak,’ easily captures the audience’s attention. As a result, in witnessing Bhavani crack the case, viewers must be eager to understand the intricacies of the crime and the criminal behind it. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Murder Mubarak Plot Synopsis
The Royal Delhi Club is known for hosting members of the elite society through an exclusive membership system. For a Diwali party, the club throws a Tambola night with people like “Raja Ji” Ranvijay, the Batra family, and well-known actress Shenaz Noorani in attendance. Although the Dogra’s only son, Akash— who has changed his views on elite society after dating a leftist woman— attends to appease his parents, he isn’t happy about the ordeal. Still, he’s less disgruntled when Bambi Todi, Akash’s close childhood friend and old flame, now labeled by her widow status, arrives.
The night unfolds with some drama after a little girl mistakes a passed-out Guppie Ram, a senior staff member with dementia, for a dead body. Furthermore, a huge brawl breaks out at the night’s end, stemming from an altercation between Ranvijay, Akash, and resident Zumba trainer Leo Mattews. However, the real trouble arrives the next morning when Cookie, Bambi, and Roshni find Leo’s body in the gym, crushed under a bench press. Consequently, ACP Bhavani Singh arrives at the exclusive club to investigate.
While the Club owner insists the instance is likely an open and shut case of accidental death, Bhavani believes Leo to be a victim of murder, especially due to the gym’s continentally blocked CCTV footage. As a result, Bhavani sets up shop in the club’s storage warehouse and begins questioning the members and staff. Nevertheless, the cop finds little leads from the interviews, save for Guppie, who claims to have seen the murder. Yet, due to his dementia, it becomes difficult to separate facts from fiction.
Furthermore, pressure from higher-ups and an upcoming transfer put Bhavani on a ten-day time clock. After raiding the deceased’s living quarters, Bhavani discovers that a red tablet that Leo prized is missing from his ransacked room. Thus, once Bambi comes out and reveals that the man has been blackmailing her into transferring funds to an orphanage for months, Bhavani realizes that the man was blackmailing several other club members.
In fact, through the orphanage ledgers, Bhavani finds himself with a list of possible suspects who would have a motive to murder Leo, their blackmailer. Unsurprisingly, the club’s inner circle, Ranvijya, Roshni, and Bambi, are included in the list. On the other hand, Shenaz, who has been donating to the orphanage long before Leo’s interference, sheds some of the suspicions. Still, Bhavani remains suspicious of her.
Meanwhile, the autopsy showcases the presence of the Pinko drug in Leo’s system, which could have led to the muscle jam that ultimately killed him. Interestingly, the drug wasn’t found anywhere else save for one of the resident cats, Prince Harry’s throw-up. Consequently, Akash and Bambi conduct their own private investigation and trace Yash Batra, Roshni’s son and a recovering addict, to a local Pinko supplier.
Things come to a head when, a few days after Leo’s funeral, Guppie Ram commits suicide with Ranvijay’s family gun after his dementia pushes him to cook his own cat, Prince Harry. Furthermore, staff member Ganga’s connection to Ranvijay brings up the disappearance of her abusive husband, Ajay Kumar. Moreover, Bhavani realizes that Bambi has been keeping her sexual relationship with Theo a secret, condemning herself to his suspicions.
Thus, things get further complicated once Bhavani realizes that Guppie’s eclectic gardening habits are actually a ruse to poison the garden. Consequently, after an excavation, Bhavani discovers a skeleton from under the garden.
Murder Mubarak Ending: Whose Body is Found Under the Garden?
Initially, the common assumption remains that Ranvijay has something to do with the body that Bhavani discovers under the garden. The area is in commemoration of Ranvijay’s late wife, Rani Vasudha Devi. Therefore, due to Ranvijay’s connection with Ganga, Bhavani suspects the skeleton to belong to Ajay, the abusive ex. Yet, Bhavani learns a different truth about Ranvijay once he realizes the royal family descendant lives in a rundown manor, low on funds. Leo was actually blackmailing the man by threatening to out him as a gay man in a relationship with a staff member at the club.
Additionally, once the police find Ajay well and alive, a runaway husband rather than a dead one, Bhavani realizes Ranvijya has nothing to do with the body. The final piece of the puzzle arrives when forensics sends in the DNA identification of the dead body, which isn’t a match for Ajay at all. Instead, the dead body belongs to Anshul, Bambi’s husband, who died three years ago.
Throughout the film, the characters maintain that Anshul died in a natural calamity in Manali, with his body washed away in the river, never to be found. Much of Bambi’s emotional turmoil stems from the same incident, which also drove a wedge between Akash and her. However, now that Anshul’s body is found, a different truth emerges. Anshul died after a head trauma injury with shards found in his decaying eye socket. As such, Bhavani realizes Leo’s death was likely a cover-up orchestrated by Anshul’s killer to hide their murderous spree.
Who Is Behind The Murders?
Near the film’s end, as numerous revelations come out in the open, Bhavani begins to see the entire bigger picture. After he spots a handmade bust in Ranvijay’s home, gifted to him by Cookie, Bhavani realizes that the bust holds identical stones to the ones that were found in fragments in Anshul’s body. However, the bust’s twin pair, gifted to the Batras, has been missing for years. Therefore, in the final showdown, once Leo’s tablet is found, Bhavani gathers the club members and staff— his initial suspect list— into the same room for the classic whodunnit finale monologue.
As the others’ secrets come out in the open regarding Leo’s blackmail, a new development arrives. As it would turn out, Yash Batra attempted suicide last night through overdose, leaving a suicide note behind, confessing his stalker-esque obsession with Bambi. With the development, Bhavani floats the theory that Yash could’ve killed Anshul three years ago in a fit of jealousy. Afterward, he might have employed Guppie’s help to bury the body, ensuring his secret’s safety until Leo managed to dig it out.
Therefore, in theory, Yash, who remains half-dead in a hospital bed, could be responsible for the murders. Yet, the evidence remains circumstantial. In contrast, another one of Bambi’s admirers has a better case against him. The same motive of jealousy could be applied to Akash to connect him to Anshul’s murder. From there, the man would have self-preservatory motives to murder Guppie and Leo. Furthermore, unlike Yash, Akash has more tangible evidence against him.
The evidence is CCTV footage from Bambi and Anshul’s wedding anniversary, where anyone last saw the latter. While Leo’s blackmail material captured a moment where Akash’s beat-up car can be spotted in the distance long after the man was supposed to have left the premises, the CCTV itself was missing the footage from the same time. Therefore, Bhavani can make the argument that Akash deleted the footage to cover his crime.
Thus, the police have enough evidence to arrest Akash and send him to trial in a court case. However, as the police escort Akash, the real killer comes out with the truth, unwilling to watch Akash take the blame for her crimes. As it would turn out, Bambi has been behind the murders the entire time.
Bambi was obsessed with the Royal Delhi Club, with the establishment becoming her entire life. She was scared of venturing into the real world, which is why she constructed a home and a prison for herself in the club. For the same reason, Bambi decided to marry Anshul despite Akash’s undying love for her. The woman knew she would make an ideal couple with Anshul and be accepted wholeheartedly within the club.
Nevertheless, Bambi and Anshul never really loved each other. The same only became a problem when Anshul fell in love with Ganga, wanting to go public with his relationship. While Bambi would have been okay with Anshul seeing Ganga despite his marriage with the former, she thinks a divorce would ruin the perfect image she has built for herself in the club as part of the “perfect” married couple.
For the same reason, after Bambi’s attempt to talk Anshul out of his decision to choose a life with Ganga fails, she kills him in a rage with the Cookie’s handmade ceramic bust. Afterward, she convinced Guppie to help her hide the body by feeding him stories about Anshul sexually assaulting Ganga. As such, she went on to craft a story about Anshul’s mysterious death in Manali, getting away with his murder for three years.
Nevertheless, Leo’s addition ruined Bambi’s perfect crime. Leo managed to extract the truth about Anshul’s death from Guppie and utilized it as blackmail material against Bambi. For the same reason, the woman murdered him— again employing Guppie’s help to drug his water bottle and swap it out before the police’s arrival. From there, she continued to orchestrate the deaths of Guppie and Prince Harry, the cat, to cover up her footsteps. Likewise, she tried to frame Yash for Leo’s murder by planting Pinko in his house and staging his suicide. Ultimately, Bambi was behind every murder because she preferred to be a widow rather than a divorcee.
Why Does Bambi Confess To The Murders?
In the end, after Bambi confesses to Leo’s murder, the entire picture lays out in the open for Bhavani. Still, as it would turn out, Bhavani already knew about Bambi’s involvement in the case after learning that she was in possession of the Batra’s ceramic bust after it went missing. Nonetheless, if Bhavani had directly accused Bambi of the murders, she could’ve built a case for herself, leaving the investigation’s conclusion in the hands of a court jury.
For the same reason, Bhavani intentionally pinned the murder on Akash to draw Bambi out. After working with the duo for the past few days, the cop realized they had an unresolved romantic history. As such, he decides to use the same against Bambi. By framing Akash for the murder, Bhavani leaves Bambi no other option but to sacrifice herself for Akash by confessing.
Even though Bambi went on to marry Anshul, she always knew the depth of her feelings for Akash. Nonetheless, marriage and love were intrinsically unrelated things for Bambi. Therefore, while the woman didn’t marry Akash, she was willing to go to prison for him. Thus, Bambi confessed to the murders to save the man she loves. Inversely, even though Bambi’s crimes may have blindsided Akash, the man would likely go on to represent her in court as her lawyer due to his own feelings for the woman.
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