Small towns in India and elsewhere – even in the most developed regions of the world – have a certain mystery about them. When dusk falls, they can be eerily scary, thanks to the lack of adequate lighting. I remember my boyhood summers in Kanchipuram, about two hours away from Chennai (once Madras), where folklore and myth juggled to spawn ghostly tales. One was about Goddess Durga in her most fiery form walking the streets in the middle of the night!
So, I was quite keyed in as I watched the six episodes of His & Hers on Netflix, a classic whodunit adapted from Alice Feeney’s novel with the same title that unfolds in a small Georgia town in Europe. Dahlonega is the name that turns bloodthirsty with three young women being murdered.
What is as interesting is that detective Jack (Jon Bernthal) on the case and the Atlanta reporter covering the crime, Anna (Tessa Thompson), are married but estranged, and when thrown together, sparks fly. Also, Anna knew the victims from her school days.
A quiet start with Anna returning to her job after losing her baby in what seemed like a crib death. Her mother, Alice (Crystal Fox), was babysitting the little one, and Anna runs away from the horror of it all. Despite her editor’s reluctance to let Anna write about the murders, she gets her way and begins her investigative reporting.
William Oldroyd, writer, director, and executive producer of the series, said recently that the “book was extremely inspiring. Its climax shocked him, and it made him want to create His & Hers for television”. He also felt that his lifelong, unconditional support from his own mother was also a reason why he thought of His & Hers.
However, on the flip side, I find some of the events in His & Hers have been done to death earlier. Anna’s rape in the woods was orchestrated by her own friends. Really devilish, I would think, but so common in just about every third movie. Finally, His & Hers has some similarities with the Sreedevi starrer, Mom – a brutal narrative of maternal love and revenge.
(The writer is a movie critic and author. Views are personal.)