Film / Monica, O My Darling

Don't ask why, ask how. We fucked, and that's how.

You know why my father loves you? Because you've come from nowhere, and you'll do anything to make it.

— Nishikant Adhikari to Jayant Arkhedkar

Monica, O My Darling is a 2022 neo-noir comedy thriller directed by Vasan Bala. An adaptation of the Japanese novel Burutasu no Shinzou by Keigo Higashino (more famous for his 2005 novel The Devotion of Suspect X), it was released on Netflix on November 11, 2022.

Jayant "Jay" Arkhedkar (Rajkummar Rao) seems to have the perfect Rags to Riches story. Born in obscurity in the unknown village of Angola, he has managed to work himself up to being one of the top engineers at the Unicorn Group, a robotics firm in the city of Pune. He has just been promoted to the board of directors of the company by the CEO, Satyanarayana Adhikari, and to top it all off, is engaged to his daughter Nikki (Akansha Ranjan Kapoor). Sure, he may be a bit of an ass to his coworkers, including his sister Shalu (Zayn Marie Khan) and her fiance Gaurav (Sukant Goel), but a man as extraordinary as he is allowed to throw his weight around a bit, right?

Jay, however, has a secret - he has been having an affair with the company's secretary, Monica Machado (Huma Qureshi). This becomes a problem when she tells him that she is pregnant with his child. Called to a secret location with blackmail photos of himself and Monica, he learns that two other members of the company - Managing Director and Satyanarayana's son Nishikant (Sikander Kher) and Chief Financial Officer Arvind Manivannan (Bagavathi "Bucks" Perumal) - find themselves in the same boat. To save their careers from scandal and jeopardy, they decide to murder Monica.

Things, to put it mildly, do not go as planned.

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This film contains examples of:

• Bolivian Army Ending: At the end, Jay goes to Gaurav's house in Angola to find and destroy the contract. As he finds and burns it, the last proof of his ever having been involved in the plot to murder Monica, he is surrounded by Gaurav's snakes. He drops the burning contract. Smash to Black. This may also count as a Karma Houdini Warranty for Jay, given his involvement in the plan.
• The Cameo: Supri from Vasan Bala's previous film Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota shows up here as one of the safari tourists who discover Nishikant's corpse.
• Dirty Cop: Naidu, hoo boy. She is revealed to have murdered Tamang Rana on Satyanarayana's orders to cover up the latter's involvement in Monica's murder, declaring publicly that Rana was the father of Monica's child, killed her to hush it up, and committed suicide out of guilt.
• Femme Fatale: Monica, the Sexy Secretary who seems to prefer red dresses and has been blackmailing three men, telling each of them that they are the father of her unborn child, escalating even further when she survives Nishikant's attempt to kill her, and it seems like she was the one who sent the snakes which killed Arvind and almost killed Jay. Things get really interesting when it turns out that Monica is in fact, a subversion, if not an outright defiance of the archetype — she never intended to blackmail anyone, she never met Nishikant in Mumbai, and she didn't kill Nishikant or Arvind. She only indicates that she might have a hint as to who killed them, before dying a complete innocent, killed by Rana on Satyanarayana's orders throgh snake venom mixed in her wine.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The board outside Shalu's house thanks the viewer for pausing to read the names, and reveals that her neighbours include mostly famous directors - "Q. Tino", P.T. Anderson, Anurag Kashyap, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Abbas Mastan, Sai "Paranjapee", Pankaj Advani, Guru D[utt], and Sriram Raghavan. The sole non-director name is Sarika Vartak, another Shout-Out to Raghavan - Sarika Vartak was the name of the main character of Raghavan's debut film Ek Hasina Thi.
• His Name Is...: Monica says that they might have an idea as to who killed Nishikant and Arvind, but is killed by snake venom in her wine before she can say it. Unusually, this scene subverts the expected stretching out due to the victim talking in circles before revealing the important information — a character's excessive verbosity is responsible for Jay not being able to know Monica's guess about the killer, but that character is Nikki, not Monica, who calls Jay stoned out of her mind.
• Really Gets Around: Monica seems to be the company bicycle, having had sex with Jay, Arvind, Shrikant and Satyanarayana. Possibly Tamang Rana as well, if him being able to get close enough to her to poison her wine is any indication.
• Shout-Out: Vasan Bala really likes his cinema.
  • The opening credits use the same font as those of Pulp Fiction.
  • The opening credits give "Special Thanks" to Sriram Raghavan, and several of his films are referenced. Apart from details mentioned in Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • Johnny Gaddaar is playing on Jay's TV when he receives the cobra in the post.
    • Naidu visits the Bank of Badlapur when Jay is hanging on for dear life after being pushed from the company roof by Gaurav.
  • Monica stands outside the Bates Motel in Mumbai.
  • Nikki refers to her cousin Vinny.
  • When Arvind asks Jay if he can help him dispose the body, Jay sarcastically asks if he has John Abraham's motorcycle.
  • When she is stoned, Nikki thinks her car is flying like Back to the Future.
• Wham Line: Right at the end, during Nishikant's last rites:
  Jay: Can I ask you something? But please tell me the truth. Was Monica really pregnant?
  Naidu: [sighs] You want the truth?
  Jay: [nods]
  Naidu: Okay, tell me something. If Monica had had the baby, how would it be related to you?
  Jay: Maybe my son, or my daughter?
  Naidu: [shaking her head] It would've been your brother- or sister-in-law.