Director: Gurinder Chadha
Writer: Gurinder Chadha (Screenplay)
Starring: Sanjeev Bhaskar, Steve Morphew, Steve Jones, Jamie Sives, Sendhill Ramamurthy, Mark Addy
Plot: A comedy centered on an Indian mother who takes her obsession with marriage into the world of serial murder.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Enjoyable Rom Com Horror
Story: It’s a Wonderful Afterlife starts with four mysterious Indian cuisine related murders, D S Raj Murthy (Ramamurthy) is bought into help get information from the Indian community but we learn early on that his old family friend Mrs Sethi (Azmi) is behind the murders as she is trying to find a husband for her daughter Roopi (Notay) and all the victims have insulted her daughter but are now haunting Mrs Sethi.
As the investigation points in Roopi’s direction the spirits haunting her mother works with them to find her a husband before she will confess to the murders giving the spirits a chance to be reincarnated and with Raj back in the life he makes for a perfect choice.
Thoughts on It’s a Wonderful Afterlife
Characters – D S Raj Murthy is assigned to go undercover in search for the killer that is killing people in the Indian community, he offers a love interest for Roopi but is also finding out if she is the killer. Roopi is the Indian woman that hasn’t gotten married yet with her mother trying to find her a husband, she is a kind woman helping others but just doesn’t believe in herself. Linda is the best friend that returns believing she can handle spirits and that she will be finding her partner. Mrs Sethi is the murderer, she is killing people that insult her daughter but finds herself being haunted by the spirits.
Performance – The performances through the film are great with Sendhil Ramamurthy from heroes taking the leading man role with ease, Shabana Azmi is also great as the concerned murdering mother. Goldy Notay does a great job too as the daughter looking for love but not searching for it and Sally Hawkins does seem to get the most laughs from her character.
Story – The story uses the idea of arranged marriage being around in Indian culture still and this film takes things to the next level showing how a mother would kill to make sure her daughter would get married to the right person. It does have the usual misleading issues with our characters being involved in a murder case but otherwise things all go the way you would expect in the story.
Comedy/Horror/Romance – The comedy comes from all the idea of the kills, the spirits haunting the mother and the arranging of finding Roopi a husband. The horror comes from the haunting of Mrs Sethi but is used for the comedy with the romance focusing on the idea of searching for the husband.
Settings – The settings show how the Indian culture has become a part of England and the mix can work in harmony for the story.
Special Effects – The effects are good through the film only being used to show interaction with the spirits.
Scene of the Movie – Carrie parody.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It focuses too much on the rom com side of things over the horror.
Final Thoughts – This is an enjoyable rom com with a small part horror, it shows us about how people can go too far for the happiness of their own family with laughter and murder.
Overall: One to try for rom com community out there.
Rating
