The whodunnit is perhaps the most explored genre in crime. For decades, crime thrillers have regaled audiences across languages, countries, and cultures. People feel a good murder mystery is timeless. But over the years, murder mysteries have become more complex. First it was with the introduction of twists and later with socio-political layers. Today, a murder myster is often a coming-of-age tale, as Prime Video’s upcoming film, Babita Singh Reporting is. In a chat with Hindustan Times, executive producer Sudip Sharma talks about the film and the genre at large.
Sudip Sharma on Babita Singh Reporting
Babita Singh Reporting stars Nimisha Sajayan as a suspended, underconfident police officer in Madhya Pradesh who stumbles upon a murder investigation while visiting her in-laws. The film is as much about finding the killer as it is about finding Babita and her true self. Talking about this approach, Sudip Sharma says, “Whodunnit, as a genre, has been done to death by a lot of people, including some in the room. If you still want to do a whodunnit, you need to find a fresher take, some nuance in it. That’s true for any genre that you have explored with a certain amount of frequency.”
Sudip, best known for creating Paatal Lok, adds that Babita Singh Reporting provides that freshness. “That is what I found exciting about this film that although it is a story about an investigation, there is a lot more to it. In some ways, the investigation becomes a conduit in her own search for herself,” he adds.
‘That genre died with Agatha Christie’
Babita Singh Reporting is a film that places the reveal of the mystery secondary to the protagonist’s own journey. Sudip adds that he prefers films that do this. “It’s never about the reveal. Personally, those are not the stories that resonate where it’s about ‘I could never guess who the killer is’. That genre is long gone. It died with Agatha Christie. Now, it’s really about the things that one discovers on the journey, and the larger spotlight that you can draw on the story.” He cautions that one cannot disregard the reveal completely, but also not be caught up in it. “You still need to give a satisfying reveal because that is the promise of the genre. But that cannot be the only promise of the film,” he adds.
Babita Singh Reporting also stars Barun Sobti and is directed by Ambiecka Pandit. The film releases on Prime Video on August 28.