Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa (2023): Rajat Kapoor’s Whodunit Bets On Uncomfortable Irony
Someone is dead. The people gathered around the news can barely suppress their relief, and the film knows exactly how uncomfortable that is. Rajat Kapoor’s Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa sets up its central irony in the title itself: a man the world claims to love, mourned by people whose dialogue betrays something far more complicated.
Vinay Pathak Carries the Weight of a Character We Never Directly See Alive
Pathak’s Sohrab Handa is a peculiar construction, present everywhere, seen nowhere. His character exists entirely through the reactions of people around him, through loaded silences and throwaway lines like “सब मर गए किसका मर्डर हुआ है सोरा भांडा हमारा दोस्त.” That tragicomic eulogising is where Pathak’s screen presence matters most, the audience must believe in a man assembled entirely from other people’s contradictions.
Whether Pathak pulls it off depends entirely on how the script deploys him. Given his track record in films like Bheja Fry, he is precisely the right choice to play a man loved in theory and resented in practice. That casting instinct alone signals what Kapoor is going for.
Kapoor’s Direction Trusts the Ensemble But the Screenplay Leaves Gaps You Notice
Rajat Kapoor has always been a filmmaker more interested in social discomfort than plot mechanics. Here, the whodunit structure feels less like the point and more like the vehicle, a frame to hang a psychological portrait of friendships, marriages, and quiet resentments.
The strength is tonal. The dialogue like “कांग्रेचुलेशंस दैट्स माय गुड फ्रेंड सोरा भांडा साले चुप कर ज सिर पे फोडूंगा ये गिलास” reads as dark comedy stitched into grief, a needle Kapoor threads with some precision. The flaw, however, is structural. Without available plot scaffolding to evaluate, what the film reportedly gestures toward is a mystery that may prioritise character study over clean whodunit resolution, which is a legitimate risk but not always a satisfying one.
I find Kapoor’s instinct to subvert genre expectations more interesting than most directors’ attempts to satisfy them, but a psychological drama wearing a murder mystery’s clothes needs the seams to hold. If the screenplay doesn’t justify its final reveals with the groundwork laid in its first half, the irony curdles into frustration.
For more Hindi thriller reviews and whodunit drama analysis, Hindi Drama reviews cover films from both OTT and theatrical releases across the spectrum.
Saurabh Shukla and Ranvir Shorey Anchor the Film’s Structural Tension
Saurabh Shukla as the investigating cop is casting that almost writes itself, and that’s both the appeal and the risk. He is an actor who can make bureaucratic fatigue feel lived-in, and in a murder mystery where the detective’s skepticism must puncture social pretense, his presence is an anchor.
Ranvir Shorey, on the other hand, is an actor who specialises in simmering resentment barely held beneath a genial surface. Placing him in this ensemble, a dead man’s social circle where everyone is potentially guilty, is a deliberately pointed choice. Neil Bhoopalam, Sadiya Siddiqui, Koel Purie, and Waluscha De Sousa round out a cast that collectively suggests Kapoor wanted this to feel like a chamber piece, not a procedural. The ensemble ambition is visible even if the execution remains unverified at this stage.
No Controversy, But the Audience Reception Question Is the Real Unknown
There are no reported political controversies or censorship issues surrounding the film. The real reception gamble is subtler: does an OTT audience conditioned on tighter, faster whodunits have the patience for a Rajat Kapoor film that is fundamentally more interested in character archaeology than in plot velocity?
The dialogue snippet “चलो चलो हैप्पी एनिवर्सरी”, dropped into what is presumably a crime scene context, suggests the film uses irony as a weapon. Audiences who read that as wit will lean in. Those expecting conventional thriller momentum may lean out. That divide is the film’s true critical fault line, and it was always going to be.
If you found the performance-driven character unravelling in KAAM 25 review to be a compelling benchmark for ensemble crime drama, this film sits in a similar register of intent.
Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa is built for viewers who prefer their murder mysteries to function as social autopsies. Stream it on ZEE5 if you trust Rajat Kapoor’s instinct for uncomfortable irony and can accept a whodunit where the genre mechanics serve the character study, not the other way around. If you’re after a tightly wound procedural with satisfying plot turns, this will likely test your patience.
Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa is a film that earns its curiosity more than its resolution, and while Kapoor’s tonal ambition keeps it watchable, the structural unknowns give it a guarded 3 out of 5, worth your evening on OTT, not your unconditional enthusiasm.
For another film where an ensemble is asked to carry more than the script visibly supports, the Ekaki verdict in Ekaki makes for an instructive comparison.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.
