Monica, O My Darling, is a Bollywood film currently on Netflix, directed and written by Vasan Bala (and co-directed by Yogesh Chandekar). The film revolves around Jayant “Jay” Arkhedkar (Rajkummar Rao), a poor boy made good: He’s a roboticist at a top-of-the-line company, he’s being promoted to the board of directors, and he’s engaged to his boss’s daughter. He’s also sleeping with the secretary, Monica. He tries to break the relationship off, but Monica tells him she’s pregnant with his child, and while she’s not not blackmailing him, she expects him to take responsibility. Jay is struggling with his next move when he’s lured to a hotel where he meets two other men: his boss’s son and the company’s CFO. Turns out that they’re also sleeping with Monica and she’s telling them she’s pregnant with their child.
The son proposes a plan: They’ll kill Monica. Specifically, they’ll gamble on it. One person will actually kill Monica, the other two will transport her body in stages. To ensure compliance, the men sign a contract and stamp it with their fingerprints. Jay finds himself on body disposal duty, and, after some antics, leaves Monica’s body in a swamp. Suffice it to say, the plot gets increasingly complex from there. Someone’s gotten their hands on that contract, and there’s a perceptive police inspector poking around…
The reason we watched this film is because it’s an adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s Heart of Brutus, which has never been translated into English but must have been accessible to the filmmakers. Based on comments from someone who’s read the book, this more or less follows the plot beats, with a few changes (Higashino didn’t have murderous cobra attacks). Jay is also more likeable than that book’s protagonist. You aren’t quite rooting for him to get away scot-free—this situation is his own fault—but you are hoping he gets himself out of the mess he’s found himself in. There are quite a few moments of black comedy as Jay keeps running into complications while trying to dispose of evidence.
The movie also has some mystery elements as Jay tries to figure out the third party who’s rampaging in the background. I really can’t call this a fair mystery per se. The movie really makes no effort to disguise the mastermind, only their motive for doing what they do. The only reason I didn’t figure it out sooner is my face-blindness. What the movie does well is foreshadowing. Almost all of the twists are set-up in advance, and multiple times I had the experience of seeing something happen and remembering how the movie had laid the foundation for it earlier. This only breaks down at the very end, with a couple of last-minute twists that left even my fellow watchers baffled.
Oh, and the police inspector deserves her own movie series.
All in all, this is a fun little movie. If you’re a mystery purist you may want to look elsewhere, but if you like crime dramas, black comedies, or just a good movie in general—or if you’re a real Keigo Higashino addict—I’d Recommend this. Check it out
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