Search: The Naina Murder Case on JioHotstar starts with an incident of a high-profile murder that upends the life of ACP Sanyukta Roy (Konkona Sen Sharma). Roy - known for her calm methodical approach and emotional distance - suddenly finds herself investigating the personal and brutal murder of a teenage girl, Naina, which incvents a national outcry and frenzy among the media. While gearing up for a long-overdue transfer that she hopes will save her failing marriage, Roy has to go back in the field for her most demanding and personal case yet.

Storyline

The narrative goes deep in the murky world of politics, media, and corruption with Naina's murder serving as a symptom of a corrupt and rotten system. As the investigation of ACP Roy progresses, every piece of information she gathers propels her through increasingly darker aspects of social abuse of power. Sippy assumes both the position of director and co-writer and manages the factual procedural investigation with the emotional complications of the narrative, which the audience is expected to grapple with as both ACP Roy pursues her investigation while all the characters' lives become increasingly fragile in their own circumstances.

Positive Points

The greatest asset of Search: The Naina Murder Case is the cast. Majority stakeholder in a failing hotel venture, ACP Roy is portrayed wonderfully by Konkona Sen Sharma, as a strong yet emotionally complex character. It's not hard to accept her as a woman balancing obligations to others and to humanity against exhaustion in a dark and dangerous world. Surya Sharma holds his own as ACP Jai Kanwal; he builds subtly within his character, while even the actors mentioned previously, Shiva Pandit, Shraddha Das, Govind Namdeo, and Iravati Harshe, help keep things grounded. The show succeeds by providing a humane lens of law enforcement and highlighting the often underrepresented pain of the victims’ families.

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Negative Points

Unfortunately, the show also stumbles into predictability when relying on tropes. For example, the common storyline of a politician’s involvement in the murder of a teenager is predictable and feels worn out. The investigation, on the other hand, stays interesting, but several of the subplots are less than original, crossing the line of being formulaic. 

Verdict: A well-acted peice that keeps you performantly engaged throughout the thoughtful language and action thin and erased; despite the crime dysfunctional, but earned, "own"pressions through it's competent castediography, graced with the fine and interesting added presense of Konkona Sen Sharma.