Teresa Reviews Quicksand (2016)
Teresa reviews Quicksand (2016) and found it an excellent adaptation of “Cards on the Table.”
(Chorabali)
Based on Cards on the Table (1936)
(c)2024 by Teresa Peschel
Fidelity to text: 4 broken necks
It’s a Bengali police procedural, Inspector Battle takes the lead, there’s an unexpected twist, but you’ll recognize every beat.
Quality of film: 4½ broken necks
Outstanding. I’d have rated it higher except for the maddening subtitles and the confusing outer story.
Read more of Teresa’s Agatha Christie movie reviews at Peschel Press.
Also, follow Teresa’s discussion of these movie on her podcast.
Are there changes? Sure! The fourth member of the lawful four morphs from secretive Colonel Race to Aparna Roy, a TV investigative journalist who’s ready to confront crime and corruption wherever the story takes her. There’s nothing hidden about her. Arpana Roy appears mainly on TV, urging Sharma and Chattopadhyay to greater efforts while keeping the public eye focused on the investigation.
Novelist Tilottama Sengupta (Ariadne Oliver) (member #3 of the lawful four) is decidedly youthened, gains a boyfriend, and becomes two characters: the one involved in the investigation after Dr. Dasgupta (Mr. Shaitana)’s murder and the one relating the story to her unnamed boyfriend after the fact as if she’s retelling the investigation as her next bestselling murder mystery. Her investigation story and her novel story become one at the climax when you think you already know the answer. Here’s a hint: you don’t.
Professor Ardhendu Chattopadhyay (Poirot) isn’t relegated to second place but this investigation is no longer his. He’s a retired professor of criminology (at Cambridge) and didn’t expect to get back into the game so quickly.
The case now belongs to Deputy Commissioner Sharma (Supt. Battle). You’ll see him directing his staff, interviewing suspects, and coping with the constant public scrutiny caused by Aparna Roy prodding him about the investigation on her TV show.
The four suspects and Dr. Dasgupta (Shaitana) were transformed in minor ways. Each gets plenty of screen time letting you get to know them better. Dr. Dasgupta is a celebrity psychologist. He knows each of the lawful four fairly well on a social basis. As for the four suspects? He knows them very well indeed, because Dr. Sanyal (Dr. Roberts) is his physician, and the other three murder suspects are his patients or for Aditya Roy (Major Despard) dear, dear friends of one of his patients. As a shrink, he knows all their secrets and is blackmailing them.
The four murder suspects — even though they got away with it — aren’t strangers to the lawful four. Their pasts are public. Mrs. Lorimor becomes Madhurima Sen, an older actress with two divorces and one murdered husband in her past but she managed to get a not guilty verdict. Aditya Roy (Major Despard) claims he and Debolina (Mrs. Luxmore) didn’t murder her husband, but his accidental drowning is still very suspicious. So is the fact that Roy promptly moved in with the victim’s rich wife. Elena Banerjee (Anne Meredith) is a model but not very successful. She enjoys a close relationship with Madhurima Sen as well as having a roommate, Priyanka (Rhoda Dawes). Priyanka knows about Elena’s aunt dying “accidentally” by ingesting the wrong medicine. So does Commissioner Sharma.
And there’s Dr. Sanyal (Dr. Roberts). He was accused of murdering his patient (there are reasons to suspect there may have been more than one) but this time, it’s for the money. The patient left a pile of cash to Dr. Sanyal’s wife’s NGO which I’m sure did good work for the benefit of their clients. Or not. Dr. Sanyal’s house is very, very nice. In addition to being Dr. Dasgupta’s physician, he’s also Madhurima Sen’s physician, meaning he knows what drugs she takes because he prescribes them.
Dr. Dasgupta invites both sets of four to his palatial home to play bridge and goes to rest in front of the fire in a third room. While taking a break from the bridge game (he was the dummy for you bridge players), Dr. Sanyal discovers his body. The autopsy reveals Dr. Dasgupta was poisoned, exacerbating his heart condition and possibly leading to a heart attack. But that might not have been what killed him because he also had his neck snapped at the second vertebrae’ neatly, swiftly, and quietly. The verdict is clear: two people tried to murder him and both succeeded. If the heart attack didn’t get him, the broken neck did.
The investigation proceeds and gradually, you learn how everyone knows everyone else. Aparna Roy, TV journalist appears the least in person and the most onscreen in a TV. She digs up interesting connections between the four suspects. Professor Chattopadhyay focuses on the bridge scores, as you’d expect. Commissioner Sharma and his staff do the dog work of interviewing everyone connected to any of the gang of four or Dr. Dasgupta.
And Tilottama, well-known crime writer? She’s a story within a story. Like Ariadne Oliver, her appearance changes radically when she dresses up for parties and dresses down for writing. It was confusing at first, because she’s obviously telling her unnamed boyfriend about the novel she’s plotting which is equally obviously based on the murder of Dr. Dasgupta in which she was involved. Tilottama discusses plots, character arcs, and listens to his comments. He’s detached from the investigation (because it’s over and done with) which lets him be objective about how Tilottama is novelizing reality.
It’s via the boyfriend that you begin to understand why Tilottama knows Dr. Dasgupta. She was friends with his vanished stepdaughter, missing for six years. She’s the one who tells the other investigators that Dr. Dasgupta had a sleazy reputation.
You’ll be wondering by now if Professor Chattopadhyay channels Poirot since he’s no longer the focus. He does! He pays close attention to all those little details unearthed by more active investigators and keeps going back to the bridge scores as a way of understanding the suspects’ styles. Then, when Madhurima Sen is found dead, apparently a suicide, he knows whodunnit because who is this daring? Who attended her? Who knew what drugs she was prescribed? Who might have left an injection mark on her arm? If you know the novel, you know.
The climax follows the novel closely, with a surprise witness to the murder who turns out not to be a witness at all, but Professor Chattopadhyay’s student plant. The professor knew in his mind’s eye, using logic, but proving it is another issue.
The case is solved and we’re back to Tilottama working out the plot with her boyfriend. He notices what everyone else seems to have forgotten. Who administered the poison to Dr. Dasgupta? Who, besides the four suspects, had a good motive? As far as the boyfriend is concerned, he’s merely improving the plot. For Tilottama, it’s more.
There is so much to like about this film. It’s the one Poirot should have filmed and didn’t. Expect maddening white subtitles printed on white backgrounds so you’ll have to rewind sometimes. Expect fascinating glimpses into contemporary life in Kolkata, including who’s got status and who doesn’t. And expect to be surprised.
