Homi Adajania: The club culture everywhere is the same

For all the clicheacutes about a movieshoot starting with star tantrums ending with director screaming ldquoactionrdquo ldquocutrdquomdashbetween which life on screen gets captured forevermdashwersquove actually never been to a shoot where the director lording over the set yells ldquoactionrdquo at allIncluding the ongoing production of Netflixrsquos whodunnit Murder Mubarak at Hotel Maidens in North Delhi the Capitalrsquos oldest fivestar property which opened to public in 1903 The location is an obvious standin for Delhi Gymkhana in Lutyensrsquo Delhi also around since 1913The two imperial snowwhite structures architecturally match each other to a T if you donrsquot zoom out As do the green lawns where the shootmdashmainly to pick closeups of hand and other movementsmdashis on Actors and extras calmly look over afternoon aperitif neatly laid out on tables with bells for lsquobearersrsquoHomi AdajaniaDirector Homi Adajania Being Cyrus Finding Fanny Cocktail is the master of ceremonies And no he never says ldquoActionrdquo His chief assistant does that for him while hersquos busy behind the monitorAs for lsquocutrsquo he adds ldquoNobody dare say that on my behalf But I let the scene linger after actors have delivered lines I use a lotta stuff from the outtakes expressions that come up It feels authentic Dimple Kapadia yells cut on the set when shersquos not in the scene I donrsquot know whyrdquoWell we know why Kapadia 66 being Kapadia the frisky Cooks Aunty in the film of coursemdashhanging about fully bindaasbadass on location sparring randomly with Adajania Him suitably giving it back to her You can trust this is how she isHomi Adajania and Sara Ali Khan PicInstagramWhether or not on a shoot that itself feels no different from a dayout at a club Rather than an intense workday given so much at stake with a massive ensemble cast each of whom is a suspect in the murdermdashof a physical trainer in the gymkhanarsquos gymnasium who also provides other physical services to club membersAdajania says ldquoIrsquom clear itrsquos not me making the film The unit is Itrsquos important therefore to keep a certain kinda energy on setmdashso we all leave with a better memoryrdquoSome of those onscreen memories Adajania is happy to share on his laptopmdasha rare sequence in this film shot on a live location perhaps Delhirsquos Kamla Nagar Market where his protagonist cop Bhavani Singh ie Pankaj Tripathi has trouble backing up his carHe blasts the unreleased promo of his series Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo that parodies the titletrack of the hit soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi that once starred Smriti Irani currently a cabinet ministerThis is before he patiently explains scenes for the day This generosity isnrsquot common let alone from the director The sequence we actually watched shot around a pool table doesnrsquot make it to the final cut But thatrsquos filmmaking for youMurder Mubarak is based on Anuja Chauhanrsquos novel Club You To Death How did Adajania get onboard He says ldquoI was a gun for hire The writers Gazal Dhaliwal Suprotim Sengupta eventually got the juice out of the novelrdquoThe first time Adajania engaged with the murder mystery in the deliberately cornycomical space he found it convoluted ldquoIt took me a while to wrap my head around whorsquos doing what and why Thatrsquos the way itrsquos written You nail the culprit another skeleton literally pops uprdquo Which for better or worse would be the audiencersquos experience as wellApt to ask Adajania though if he had trouble navigating the world since hersquos so quintessentially lsquoBombayrsquo while Chauhanrsquos novel like the film is so lsquoDelhirsquo as it were He reasons ldquoApart from the obvious lsquoDelhiismsrsquo among characters the gymkhana club culture everywhere is the sameldquoTherersquos an insulated segment within it that breathes drinks lives inside these clubsmdashthe elections to which seem more important than politics of the country This is where they derive their validationhellip Irsquove observed this culture closely being part of a couple of clubs myselfrdquoAlthough Adajania jokes once Murder Mubarak is out he might lose his club membershipsmdashsurely Bombay Gym will not be so unkindThe outsider looking in to this ldquobizarre worldrdquo is Tripathirsquos character solving the murder Adajaniarsquos last film Angrezi Medium 2020 sequel to Saket Chaudharyrsquos Hindi Medium 2017 starred IrrfanFirstly he confesses ldquoHindi Medium was a way better filmrdquo Also he finds Tripathi and Irrfan similar in the sense of actors who know their lines but subsequently submit themselves to their surroundings working up the magic of the momentTripathi genially drops in to say hi between shots Murder Mubarak stars among others Sara Ali Khan Karisma Kapoor Vijay Varma None of whom are at work when we visit Sanjay Kapoor who plays a rajaking from a former royal family regales us instead with stories from his rsquo90s superhit film RajaYoung Amara Sangam whorsquos both an actor gymkhana staff in the film and an assistant fills us in on the MBA course she mentors on the lsquomasterclass in business of actingrsquo The adorably bumbling Brijendra Kala passes on pearls of wisdomThese are all intriguing characters by themselves The hotel for location is also conveniently where theyrsquove been staying and shooting together for monthsHypothetically what if something mysterious happens while theyrsquore unspooling the murder case for the screen Could make for an even better movie than Murder Mubarak We donrsquot wish this upon them of course