It’s Sankyukta Das’s last day at work at her cop station; she is headed to another city, and a desk job, which will give her more time with her husband-and-daughter-and-mother, all of whom gets pushed aside when it comes to the most important thing in her life: the work at hand. This, as it turns out, in the first part of the show comprising six episodes, is the discovery of a dead girl in a local politician’s campaign car. Family commitments will have to wait, as Sanyukta dives into assembling her team, while having to deal with barely-hidden barbs from a smug new entrant to her team Jai Kanwal (Surya Sharma), who thinks he knows better. So that’s your classic conflict of a cop-and-crime show, with domestic and professional pushes and pulls in play, even as murky details which shaped the crime begin emerging. Naina (Chandsi Kataria) is a college student, and is traced to a nearby institution where there are plenty of potential suspects: a best friend whose shock and horror may hide things she knows, an ex-boyfriend who is acting shaky-and-shady, as is his friend. The victim’s parents - devastated mother (Iravati) and father (Sagar Deshmukh) - go through the expected cycle of disbelief and grief. Who could have done this to their daughter, who led a blameless life? That’s the other classic reaction, of the people who think they know their kids inside out have zero idea of who they really are. Who could have done this to their daughter, who led a blameless life? That’s the other classic reaction of the people who think they know their kids inside out but have zero idea of who they really are. As we go along, we see another side to Naina, which gives us a whole new perspective on her. The plot thickens when the force begins questioning local politician Tushar Surve (Shiv Panditt, showing interesting shades) and his close friends-cum-colleagues (Shraddha Das, Dhruv Sehgal), whose car was involved. Do they protest too much? One of Naina’s professors comes off as being a bit too familiar with her: is he the one? A combative rival (Govind Namdeo) promises to be a thorn in Surve’s side: how will he be fobbed off? Directed by Rohan Sippy, and written by Shreya Karunakaran and Shreya Anand, this well-produced adaptation of Danish series ‘The Killing’ has familiar beats. The veteran cop, whose spouse (Mukul Chaddha) exhibits increasing annoyance and fading affection, with an angsty teenage daughter storing questionable personal details on her laptop. The newbie who works through his macho bristles to reluctant respect for a senior, more experienced colleague - the clash is pretty much a trope, and here too it takes up until the third episode to loosen up a little, with the neat progression of next-scene-in-screenplay moving into more unexpected, rumbly territory when dark secrets begin tumbling out. Watch Search The Naina Murder Case trailer here: It’s always a pleasure watching the excellent Konkona Sen Sharma fronting a show like this, even if the trouble with not knowing whodunit is not being able to form a complete impression. Will the cliffhanger interval survive intervening time? We’ll have to see Search The Naina Murder Case cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Surya Sharma, Shiv Panditt, Dhruv Sehgal, Naved Alam, Govind Namdeo, Iravati Mayadev, Sagar Deshmukh, Mukul Chaddha, Atiya Nayak, Pari Tonk Search The Naina Murder Case director: Rohan Sippy Search The Naina Murder Case rating: 2.5 stars
