House Of Lies Review : Sanjay Kapoor’s film is an amateurish whodunnit murder mystery

Story: The drama revolves around the mysterious death of Albert Pinto, with a focus on uncovering whether his death was due to natural causes or if there was foul play involved.

Review: ‘House of Lies’ offers nothing new. If anything, it bores you and makes you smirk at places where it tries, and fails, to keep you glued to the whodunnit thriller. The film's premise isn't unfamiliar, but its execution and predictable plot ruin the entire experience.

The film starts with the suspicious death of Albert Pinto (late Rituraj K Singh), discovered the morning after his birthday party. Investigating officers Rajveer Singh Choudhary (Sanjay Kapoor) and Abhay (Hiten Paintal), along with Officer Sashi (Simran Kaur Suri) from the Enforcement Directorate, interrogate the family members and other guests present at the party. The drama quickly shifts its focus to Rajveer, who is known for solving cases in less than a week. He dives into the investigation, scrutinizing everyone, including Albert’s past and his links to cryptocurrency.

The plot is jaded with limp characters. Thankfully, there are no subplots, so the story remains focused on one thing: finding out what happened to Albert. However, the police procedures are laughably poor from the start. None of the investigating officers wear gloves or take any precautions while inspecting the scene. Instead, they merely put up yellow tape to mark the area as a crime scene. Additionally, the shaky camera work in most scenes is distracting.

Sanjay Kapoor and Hiten Paintal deliver passable performances as the investigating officers. Simran Kaur Suri, as Officer Sashi, comes across as a one-dimensional character overly concerned with the 35 crores Albert earned from cryptocurrency. The late Rituraj K Singh has a limited role, as his character Albert is dead at the beginning of the film. The rest of the cast, including Albert’s family and friends—his wife Ragini (Ssmilley Suri), brother Anthony, sister-in-law Aastha (Taniya Chatterjee), lawyer Karan Sinha (Jaydeep Ashra), doctor Fernandis (Mir Sarwar), friend Col. Verma (Sukhangshu Chatterjee), and house help Zaid (Ajitesh Gupta)—are nothing more than caricatures.

All this could have been presented smartly, but unfortunately, director Saumitra Singh seems to make little effort to engage the audience. Thankfully, the film is only 82 minutes long; otherwise, it would have been even more challenging to endure this amateurish whodunnit murder mystery.