House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths
Documentary (English/Netflix)
Directors: Leena Yadav and Anubhav Chopra
Rating: 3/5/5
In 'House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths', Netflix explores the sensational case in Delhi where 11 members of a family were found dead in their house in 2018.
The first of the three episodes deals with the discovery of bodies. The second one, 'Diaries', goes a step further into the investigation by revealing the diaries that hold a good clue about what happened.
The final episode, 'Beyond 11', tells us what exactly led to the gruesome deaths, which cannot be called either suicides or murders, to quote the journalists who are interviewed in the show.
Unlike mainstream TV crime shows, this documentary skips showing extensive details of the forensics and evidence in the case. Instead, it focuses on the ‘why’ of the crime.
Though India is perceived to be a country of spirituality, it also has deep-rooted myths embedded in the belief system which makes people throw away their rationality and believe in supernatural forces. The series dissects a cult formed in a very small circle, the power-play, suspension of disbelief and blind following.
The show exposes mainstream television and news media's habit to sensationalise such cases and bury the actual story. “It was reported as a story of numerology, with a sort of Tantrik dimension to it,” says journalist Barkha Dutt in the third episode.
The documentary talks to the relatives of the dead in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. It talks to the reporters and investigators involved in covering the incident. It gets perspectives from psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists and doctors.
The ‘why’ of the crime is thus narrated well. To quote Barkha again, “At the heart of it, there seems to be this mass resistance to talking about mental health, and also because we have stigmatised these conversations.”
'House of Secrets' could have been shorter by editing repetitive statements. The makers recreate some scenes for visual variety.
The show ends with a statement: “The secrecy with which it happened shows the lack of interconnectedness in the society. So the society actually needs to have these conversations even if they are unsettling because telling the stories of these people is in itself giving a closure, both for them and us.”
That is exactly what the documentary did: telling an important story forgotten by the mainstream media.