The Perfect Murder
1990/India, 93 minutes

The Perfect Murder, which premiered in New York at the Angelika Film Center in March 1990, was released under the auspices of Merchant Ivory Productions. But although Merchant is credited as its executive producer, having helped to arrange financing and distribution, he had little part in the actual shooting of the film. In the late 1980s, Merchant became interested in organizing an independent film unit in Bombay that would provide an opportunity for local film people to make modestly budgeted films for distribution in the West. The Perfect Murder, the first in a prospective series of films by this group, is a detective story with more than a small amount of humor, based on the British writer H. R. F. Keating's novel about Inspector Ghote (Go'-tay) who, with a Swedish criminologist studying Indian police methods




Director: Zafar Hai
Producer: Wahid Chowhan
Executive producer: Ismail Merchant
Screenplay: H.R.F. Keating and Zafar Hai, from Keating's novel
Photography: Walter Lassally
Music: Richard Robbins
Editor: Charles Rees
Art direction: Ram Yadekar
Costumes: Sally Turner
Casting: Jennifer Jaffrey

Cast: Nassiruddin Shah (Inspector Ghote), Stellen Skarsgard (Axel Svensson), Dinshaw Daji (Mr. Perfect), Archana Puran Singh (Miss Twinkle), Madhur Jaffrey (Mrs. Lal), Sakina Jaffrey (Neena Lal), Amjad Khan (Lala Heera Lal), Ratna Pathak Shah (Pratima Ghote), Dalip Tahil (Dilip Lal), Baba Majgoakar (Jeweler), Anu Kapoor (Tiny Man), Vijoo Khote (Head Constable), Mohan Agashe (A.C. P. Samaut), Wahid Chowhan (Producer), Vinod Nagpal (Minister), Gopi Krishna (Dance Master), Ashley D'Silva (Photographer), Pearl Padamsee (Nurse), Johnny Walker (Jain), Liliput (Black Shirt), P. M. Maniar (Drunken Guest), Sameer Kakkad (Felix Sousa), Imaaduddin Shah (Ved Ghote), Aida Noorani (Student), Nayeem Hafizka (Prem Lal), Rajesh Vivek (Zero Police), Salim Ghouse (Caste-Marks Goonda), Bomi Kapadia (Sergeant Moos)

I have a perplexing question, hope someone can answer! I seen so many of these types movies where the Jaffreys dominated! So what is the relationship with Saed Jaffrey, Madhur Jaffrey, Sakina Jaffrey and Jennifer Jaffrey and couple more males that I missed, can't recall the names at the moment?

Screen shots from the DVD thanks to JamesBond007;



















Ali

Resized shots;















Ali

See James this dvd does not look that good as the other one that you originally claimd was crap What do you say?

It's no where near the quality of the " The River". I think because this is not really a Merchant Ivory venture it is way down the rung and as such was treated poorly by Criterion. Look at the menu SS, bare minimum, no extras no commentary normally associated with all Criterion releases! I did not get the booklet insert with this one, don't know if there was ever one! I did enjoy this though. Look at the third SS in the first batch , it holds the clue to this whodunit, see if you can figure it out!. Whats interesting besides the slap stick comedy is that Amjad Khan lines are all delivered in a ryhmying fashion. The SS posted there was captured Closed Caption to show that! The other one I was talking about " The Deceiver" is a tad better than this in quality, see if I can dig it up and post a few SS. I am peeved with this one in particular because, afterall.. well you'll see........

But this film wasn't very good. Another overated film be merchant-ivory. Why are Criterion releasing it? I thought they only release great films! Why not release something good from India like Bhopal Express, Salaam Bombay, Ardh Satya or Nayakan?