Sunflower review: A bumbling fiasco
Zee5’s latest release—Sunflower—is a mystery that is really no mystery. Centred on a murder victim no one cares about and punched in with comedy where every intended joke falls flat, this film, directed by Vikas Bahl of Queen fame, is disappointing, to say the least. It’s actually the inanities of the plot that keep the laughter rolling.
The owner of a penthouse in a typical Mumbai high-rise is discovered dead, early one morning. Suspected foul play is proven when Bromethalin or rat poison is found in the deceased’s bloodstream. A team of the Mumbai Police (Ranvir Shorey and Girish Kulkarni) is called in to investigate the murder and question the residents of the apartment complex. After an inexplicably shoddy search of the crime scene, where the murderer escapes detection—hold your breath—by hiding behind a sofa, the police narrow down two suspects, the victim’s immediate neighbour (Mukul Chadha) with whom he had a long-standing feud, and a well-meaning though decidedly-odd bachelor (Sunil Grover) who lives a few floors down.
Tied in with this rather pointless ‘whodunnit’, are numerous minor storylines—ongoing building elections, the flurry caused when a hot social media influencer moves in, ill-portrayed OCD behaviour of the protagonist, and the fate of a small-town girl trying to make it as a singer, to name a few. Ironically, it’s some of these minor storylines that display the most promise. The show might have fared better, had it abandoned the ‘murder’ plotline entirely, and instead focussed on the interesting residents of the building and their flawed relationships. With a host of talented actors, Sunflower had the potential to be engaging, yet in attempting to fit the increasingly popular genre of ‘Dark Comedy’, it quite literally loses the plot.
Also, the unbearably slow pace along with an uninteresting build-up is an added disadvantage. True, there are short sparks of life in some individual scenes, such as the feisty domestic help having an affair with the well-built guard, or the comically judgmental building committee that keeps rejecting prospective flat-buyers for not fitting their idea of ‘good society’, and even Grover’s many failed attempts at making himself likeable to women… But then, unfortunately, these are few and far between. The rest of the series is like staring into the Black Hole, nothing, absolutely nothing strikes you.
The series ends on a supposedly thrilling note, willing the audience to sit in suspense for the next season. But does the comatose audience really care about the murderer being caught? Not for another torturous second.
Sunflower
Genre: Dark Comedy
Platform: Zee 5
Director: Vikas Bahl