A gripping watch with balanced storytelling

What makes a crime documentary riveting? Sometimes it is the narration, sometimes it’s the freshness of the angles covered, but in most cases, it’s the nature of the crime itself. In the case of the story of Shakereh Namazi, retold in ‘Dancing on the Grave’, it’s the latter. 

The story itself is gripping — a classic case of when reality is stranger than fiction. In the early 1990s, Bangalore was shocked by the murder of Shakereh, the granddaughter of Sir Mirza Ismail, the Diwan of Mysore. She was found buried in her backyard in Richmond Town after being drugged and killed by her second husband, a self-proclaimed godman. What was more appalling was that she had been killed and buried three years before she was found. 

The documentary, directed by Patrick Graham, begins by revealing details of her first wedding. Cousins, aunts, nephews and acquaintances talk about their memories of her. The storytelling keeps you engaged right from the start, it manages to bring home the unbelievable nature of the crime. In a particularly stark scene, we hear the haunting voice of Shakereh singing a religious song. 

Visually appealing scenes that feature recreations of her Richmond Road and Sankey Road houses, are interspersed with real footage of a handcuffed Shraddhananda showing the police where he buried her. The video clips of the constable who found the crucial clue that solved the mystery, and the local man who was the source of the clue, add richness to the narrative.

The inclusion of Sharaddhanada’s side of the story offers a balanced view, as do interviews with his lawyer. It gets a bit chilling when we see him playing with a cat in prison. “Are you Shakereh’s spirit,” he says with a chuckle, in Hindi, as he picks it up. The focus on all the characters involved in the case, officials and lawyers who worked on it, and family members who knew Shakereh closely, makes the film an engrossing watch. However, one is still left with questions. What happened to her daughters? Where are they now? What about Shraddhananda’s family? And the people who introduced the two? Answering some of these crucial questions would have made it more well-rounded.