House of Lies is a murder mystery so dull that even an 80-minute runtime seems like an eternity
Director: Saumitra Singh
Cast: Sanjay Kapoor, Ssmilley Suri, Simran Kaur Suri, Rituraj K Singh
Where to watch: Zee5
Rating: 1 star
The flavour of the season is murder mystery. And within this niche, Indian filmmakers have just (re)discovered a sub-niche, the absurd dark comedy. Knives Out started this trend, taking the Hercule Poirot model and making it more dramatic, more snazzy. This has been attempted in India too, in the form of Murder Mubarak and Neeyat. Now, filmmaker Saumitra Singh has come up with House of Lies, the latest in this sub-genre of ‘intriguing’ murders. Except this one lacks intrigue, thrill, flavour, and pretty much anything that makes a murder mystery worth watching.
House of Lies follows the investigation into the murder of Albert Pinto (Rituraj Singh deserved a better final outing). Two investigators – Rajveer Singh Chaudhary (Sanjay Kapoor) and Shashi (Simran Kaur Suri) – tussle as they have their own agendas. One wants to solve the murder while the other is focussed on lost cryptocurrency worth crores. A gamut of usual suspects act as red herrings, each with the most obvious motive.
The premise is interesting, particularly with references to cryptocurrency and blockchain thrown in. But the execution is shoddy, to say the least. Never do the characters in House of Lies resemble real people. They instead look like approximations of humans imagined by an alien species that has never met real human beings. Nobody behaves naturally in any situation. Everything from the dialogue to the mannerisms are more at home in a bad 90s’ TV show than a mainstream film.
The characters fail because even though most of the suspects have secret alliances and dalliances, none of them have any sort of chemistry. Even good actors like Rituraj Singh are wasted by a lacklustre script that simply seems to be meandering to a foregone conclusion, never attempting to grab attention or surprise the audience in any way. The overdramatisation of scenes and situations does not help one bit.
The visuals of the film are a throwback to Western shows like Twin Peaks and Broacdchurch, both about a gruesome murder in a small community. That was beautifully recreated in India in Suzhal. House of Lies is not it though. Merely visually apeing good shows cannot make it good because it lacks substance. There is hardly any mystery in the murder and the slow, insufferable way with which it unfolds leaves the viewer pretty disinterested in the conclusion.
The performances are nothing to write home about. Sanjay Kapoor sleepwalks through the role. If he is putting some effort, the script does not allow that to ever come out. Simran Kaur Suri’s character is meant to be quirky and eccentric but comes off as annoying instead, which says everything there is to about this mess. If the script is bad and the lines of dialogue cheesy, the actors make sure the delivery is even worse.
I wish I had something positive to write about House of Lies. For all their faults, its predecessors in this genre – Neeyat and Murder Mubarak – had their moments where they shone. This one, though, remains covered in darkness all through its 80-minute runtime. It’s so slow that even those 80 minutes seem like a lifetime.
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 "Sanjay Kapoor in House of Lies")
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