Mandala Murders

Mandala Murders walks a tightrope between trying to entertain and exposing its own flaws. It takes time to pull you in and reveals how the cult is far more powerful than expected. To justify the ultimate purpose behind the killings, the murders continue unchecked, with the officers failing their mission at every step. It constantly reminded me that, even though the saviour complex exists, it doesn’t always translate into execution. For example, Abhishek Bachchan's character in the Dhoom series asserts that one can only apprehend a thief in the act of committing the crime. But here, no such moment arrives until the very end—when you, just like Rea Thomas, finally piece together who the cult’s mastermind is in 2025.

Gopi Puthran and Manan Rawat's direction is great. The show is one-of-a-kind and the closest parallel one can draw is with ASUR. The intro episode itself sucks you into the mysterious world of Charandaspur. Besides the murders, Rea’s investigation angle and the track of Vikram also add to the madness. But the sub-plot of Ayastians is what stands out as its mysterious and a bit terrifying as well, especially their shocking mission. There are several surprises and twists and turns which also keep the interest going. The finale is quite gripping.

Mandala Murders aims to blend sci-fi with mythology but makes a hash of it. The sci-fi is laughable – a particle physicist builds a wish-fulfilling machine that looks like a cartoon robot and demands the sacrifice of a thumb (for what?). The mythology is mostly mumbo-jumbo. What Mandala Murders does reasonably well is the police procedural. The introduction of a streaming star in the final episode suggests that a sequel is on the way. The scenes of Charandaspur’s nooks and crannies and the action sequences are efficiently shot by Shaz Mohammed and Sandeep Gn Yadav, though the numerous close-ups of chopped up bodies could have been avoided. Vaani Kapoor, Surveen Chawla and Vaibhav Raj Gupta have the bulk of the scenes and keep the show watchable. However, the gruesome, nightmare-evoking visuals take away from the popcorn enjoyment of a crime thriller.

How are all these characters related to each other