The Indrani Mukherjea Story: Buried Truth is bland docu-series

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As it is, despite the long interim of over eight years, the case is still sub-judice (a legal term for still going on)! Whatever is shown or seen in this docu-series is also whatever is there already in public domain. The series does not claim to be offering anything new, so I do not fathom why some sources were trying to get this show banned.

Despite the horrifying and complex story of depraved human relationships, the docu-series comes across as a pale and stale recounting of facts and beliefs expressed by the family members involved, including our getting to watch Indrani Mukherjea, her daughter Vidhie and son Mikhail (through Siddhartha Das, whom she left) talking at intervals, several emails and taped recordings on phone, and also lengthy ‘discourses’(!) from some ‘experts’ on the case, like mediapersons, a cop or two and Indrani’s legal counsel.

The last-mentioned comes across, ironically, as the most forthright and honest voice, never claiming that what he knows are indisputable truths, spelling out his duties as a lawyer, and talking about the legal openings and loopholes in the case that made ‘hysteria’ even more than history s a trial by media more than anything else!

For those who came in late, or have never entered this terrible realm, it is about how Indrani Mukherjea allegedly killed her own daughter, Sheena Bora, by strangling her in a car along with her ex-husband who wasn’t her father (!) Sanjeev Khanna. The body was then carried to a prearranged place in the woods of Raigad, a town 100 kilometers from Mumbai, and set on fire with petrol.

This ghoulish deed was allegedly perpetrated on April 24, 2012, and since then Sheena was deemed missing. There was, shockingly, no attempt to locate her either on Indrani’s part, of that of her present husband, one-time Star Plus honcho and now founder of INX Media, Peter Mukherjea, or by Sanjeev’s daughter adopted by Peter— Vidhie—and Peter’s son Rahul, who loved Sheena and was to get engaged to her when she went missing. Indrani was arrested and the case filed only in August 2015!

The defending counsel’s strategy was that the human remains found, identified by DNA tests as decidedly Sheena’s, were not really hers, as based on some technical issues. Peter was said to have been in the know of the murder, and later, along with Sanjeev Khanna and the Mukherjea driver, Shyamvar, had confessed to their roles in the gruesome killing. It speaks a lot for the loopholes in the law that today, all four accused (Peter, Sanjeev, Indrani and Shyamvar) are out on bail, and the case is still going on!

The worst aspect is, however, Indrani’s admission that she was “raped twice by her father” and the result of one of these horrible incidents was Sheena!!

All said and done, this picture of how much human nature can be warped shocks viewers only by the intensity, and yet Indrani is steadfast in her statements, as she demonstrates the good times she had with Sheena and Mikhail through photos, regrets meeting all three of her husbands and especially marrying Peter (from whom she got divorce with great alimony while in jail!). And she still says that Sheena is alive! The psychopath angle is left as conjecture.

At four episodes totaling almost three hours, The Indrani Mukherjea Story: Buried Truth enthralls only in parts. Worse, when you know there is not going to be an end, unlike in the fictionalized Dark Chocolate, which was a 2016 Bengali thriller inspired by the Indrani-Sheena story. So you just wait to see how they conclude this show maybe with some highlight or twist. But they do not!

Netflix presents The Indrani Mukherjea Sory: Buried Truth  Produced by: Terry Leonard & Chandni Ahlawat Dabas  Directed by: Uraaz Bahl & Shaana Levy Written by: Sudeep Nigam Music: Joel Crasto  Featuring: Indrani Mukherjea, Vidhie Mukherjea, Mikhail & others