Everything about Murder At Teesri Manzil 302, a long-delayed Irrfan Khan starrer that Zee5 has found space for, has obsolescence emblazoned all across it. But for the lead actor, whose admirers are legion and who will always be missed, the film has little that could explain why it has been retrieved from cold storage – it was scheduled for release all of a decade ago as Bangkok Blues – and foisted upon us. Murder at Teesri Manzil 302 is dead on arrival.
Irrfan’s presence in the film, besides inducing an inevitable twinge, reminds us, if a reminder were at all needed, of the enormity of the loss that his absence represents. Even in the sloppiest of scenes in a puerile and messy suspense thriller, the actor does not lose his poise and finds ways to pull away from the mediocrity swirling around him.
The film is dedicated to both Irrfan and music composer Wajid Khan, one half of the Sajid-Wajid duo who died in 2020 two months after the much-loved actor. Unfortunately, Murder at Teesri Manzil 302 is too stodgy a film to be regarded as a fitting remembrance. Murder At Teesri Manzil 302 is, as the unwieldy title suggests, a murder mystery. It quickly murders any potential of developing into a passably engaging whodunnit. Any mystery that remains pertains to the star of The Namesake, Life… in a Metro and Paan Singh Tomar. What would have made him acquiesce to be a part of a movie such as this?