Generally, if I love a book then I don’t watch its screen adaptation as I don’t want to taint my imagination-while-reading. But Agatha Christie’s books are exceptions. I have been reading her books whole my life. I love to see how the screenplay writers have adapted the books’ plots. I have written many blogs on adaptations of Christie’s works. This is next in the line.
Few months ago, when I read Hindi film director Vishal Bharadwaj is going to adapt few books of Christie I was elated. Having loved his adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, I could not wait to see his interpretation of Christie’s works.
The first of his adaptations is Charlie Chopra and the Mystery of Solang Valley. This is a limited series in Hindi, streaming on OTT platform SonyLiv. The series is adapted from Christie’s novel The Sittaford Mystery, which is also published under the name of Murder at Hazelmoor. My personal copy is titled Murder at Hazelmoor. I have seen another screen adaptation of this book. It is an episode of ITV’s Marple titled The Sittaford Mystery.
The premises of both adaptations are loosely same as the book so are the characters. However, the details differ. I have given the details of all three versions in the following.
THE BOOK: MURDER AT HAZELMOOR (THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY) (1931)
In a small village in England while it snows heavily all around, few people try table turning or séance or in India as we call it “spirit calling”. Ghosts came freely and one of them predicts a murder accurately.
Murder victim and his family:
Captain Joseph Trevelyan is the ex-army man with great acumen for business. He is a rich man and is quite fond of money. He has built up a big house in Sittaford village, which is on the edge of Hazelmoor. Around his Sittaford house he built 6 cottages for renting/selling. He lived in Sittaford house until recently. Now he lives in a rented accommodation in the nearest town Exhampton. He is not fond of women as was jilted in youth. He is good in puzzles and trivia etc. He gets prize in in various such competitions. He was also into physical sports. His hobbies include hunting and skiing. He is not close with anyone other than his longtime friend Major Barnaby.
He has two sisters. One sister is deceased. She has left behind two sons and one daughter. Sylvia Dering is married to a struggling writer Martin Dering. Without any definite source of income, they need uncle’s money. Martin is unscrupulous while his wife is completely devoted to him. The elder son, James Pearson, works in an insurance company and dabbles in speculations, which leads to sticky situations. He needs his uncle’s money for saving his skin. The youngest son, Brian Pearson, supposed to be in Australia is a sketchy character and in need of money always.
Trevelyan’s other sister Jennifer Gardner is childless and her husband is invalid. She needs her brother’s money for her husband’s treatment, whom she adores.
Captain does not assist them financially but after his death as legal heir they will inherit Captain’s estate. Hence everyone seems to have a motive.
The residents of Sittaford village:
The current residents of Sittaford House are South African mother-daughter duo Mrs. Willett and Miss Violet Willett. They have rented the house at a very high price. In deep dark British winter, it is strange anyone would want to spend time in this secluded place under feet of snow, let alone spend lots of money for it. Is there more to this pair of women than meets the eyes?
They are always inviting people over. In one of their Teas, there is a séance and the “spirit” predicts death of Trevelyan. Most of the residents of the cottages are present in the party.
Major John Barnaby is not only tenant but the closest friend of Trevelyan. He shares his friend’s hobbies including puzzles, trivia, skiing, hunting, and speculation. But he has not been as successful in these areas as his friend. After listening to the “prediction” he walks miles to reach his friend’s place and discovers his death.
Miss Caroline Percehouse is a shrewd lady. But she is invalid, hence is absent in the party. Her penniless nephew Mr. Ronald Garfield lives with her. She bullies people. But she is very intelligent and notices things. She helps Emily in investigation.
Mr. Rycroft is interested in paranormal activities and few more things. He wants to help Emily in the investigation.
No one knows anything about Mr. Duke.
The Investigators
Emily Trefusis is one of the typical Christie characters, a strong female in an irrational and passionate love with a weak willed man. In this case, the weak willed man is James Pearson. He is arrested for the murder. Now his beautiful and intelligent fiancée must find the murderer. There is not much about her personal backstory. In many passing mentions we know she is an orphan and works as a mannequin in a cloth store. She should not be financially well off yet in the narration she seems to have no botheration about financial crunches. Maybe she has saved a lot or maybe she does not care about money when it is about saving her love.
I had read the book first time long ago. Since I liked the book so much I remembered the basic plot. In fact, I remembered something extra – I remembered Emily hiring Hercule Poirot to solve the case. On second reading, I realised there is no Poirot no Marple in the book. And also, I noticed Emily’s mind worked a lot like Poirot. She believes more in sitting and thinking or as Poirot would say, exercising grey cells, while letting the law enforcement do the leg work. No wonder, my subconsciously picked this up and let my misremembers Poirot being in the book.
She is shrewd and knows how to handle or rather manipulate people to her advantage. She offers partnership to journalist Charles Enderby for solving the case in return of him getting all first hand scoops. In spite of any arrangement, she has been single minded about her dedication and ultimate marriage to James.
Charles Enderby is presented as a sincere and dedicated journalist. He originally comes to meet Major John Barnaby as part of a trivia competition win. But stays back to cover the murder story. After Emily’s proposal he becomes putty in the hand of Emily.
Inspector Narracott is not the usual imbecile and egoist police officer of detective fiction. He is intelligent and he appreciates the outcomes of the sleuthing by Emily and Charles.
End Words
Like mentioned above, I had read this book as The Sittaford Mystery, long long back borrowing from someone (thank you the kind lender) and then I bought a used copy more recently as Murder at Hazelmoor. After watching the two adaptations of the book, I thought of reading the book. While opening the book I realised the fragility of the book. The book literally fell apart while I read it. It is not in a situation to be handled again. In the inside of the back cover, I saw a note, which conveys the book was read in 1966. I will preserve the book forever.
The book is one of Christie’s best no doubt. She has used a little horror element in the book but in the end, everything is explained logically in her typical style.
There are few plot holes. The murderer’s plan is too elaborate and hinges on few coincidents, such as the arrangement of the séance and the Captain’s domestic help not being around on that particular evening. How could they confidently go ahead with the plan with these uncertain factors. And also, why to hide the Captain’s shoes, why not hide their own shoes? The reasoning behind hiding the shoes is quite farfetched.
THE ENGLISH EPISODE: MARPLE – THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY (SEASON 2, EPISODE 4; ORIGINALLY AIRED IN 2006)
The basic skeleton of the book is used in this adaptation but there are major changes. The events of the episode happen in the 1950s, which is different than the book’s time period (must be late 1920’s or 1930 given the book publishing day). First of all, there is induction of Christie’s detective Miss Jane Marple in the story. Her nephew, the writer Raymond West is resident of one of the Sittaford cottages.
Secondly, the story starts 25 years back in Egypt where Captain Trevelyan discovers great treasure along one of his friends. Then something happens which haunts the Captain forever. And also his name is Clive, not Joseph like book.
Today he is a well known personality in England and tipped to be the next Prime Minister of Britain. But something bad had happened in his past in Egypt and he constantly guilty about it.
Like the book he is a bachelor, at least for now. But he does not abhor women like his book counterpart. In fact, his behaviour towards ladies is charming and gallant. Timothy Dalton plays the part beautifully.
Unlike the book’s version, the character does not have any siblings. He has taken over an orphan James Pearson as his ward and legal heir.
James Pearson of TV behaves like a spoilt rich brat; an alcoholic and possibly womaniser. His guardian is weary of his ways and threatens to cut him off his will. He is angry and has a clearcut motive for murder.
Apart from him, the other suspects are all gathered in The Three Crowns inn. In the book main events happen in Sittaford village while here the inn is at the centre stage.
Captain stays in the inn while back at his home there is only a loyal servant and Miss Marple. The séance in the inn predicts his death and then he gets murdered.
The suspects are gathered in the inn and blizzard gets only worse. Hence, the police can’t be summoned. Captain’s friend John Enderby carries out the investigation with help of Emily, Charles, and of course Miss Marple. Unlike the book where there is a proper police investigation with James being arrested, the series has a closed house murder. That means the suspects are marooned in the same house and there are no outside suspects. And the investigation should be done in a limited time within the house in a limited time period. The police can’t come for some reason or other.
There is no best friend named Major John Barnaby in the series.
Emily Trefusis is the strong, intelligent, and beautiful girl as her book counterpart. But unlike the book, she is a rich society girl, who can’t shy away from showing a gun. She does everything in his power to save her fiancé James from murder charge. But she is not the girl in deep irrational love from the book. In fact, she has a quite strong chemistry with Charles, which is depicted with lots of bath tub scene. It makes quite an uncomfortable watch with your minor children trust me!
Charles Burnaby befriends Emily under false pretence to get close to the Captain. He justifies it saying he did it as part of his profession as a journalist.
End Words
The ending is changed in the book. I am not mad about it. Actually, in the premise of the episode’s plot it fits nicely. In Marple series, the screen writers have changed the ending in many episodes including this one.
Unlike the book, there is no explanation given in the prediction given in the séance. There are supposed to be some eerie elements associated with Captain because of his past in Egypt.
In the kind of snowing, and blizzard where the police could not be summoned, Emily and Charles travel back and forth between the inn in the town and Sittaford House in the village to keep Miss Marple posted about the developments. This is a huge plot hole.
Miss Marple solves the crime with very little. That seems quite unrealistic.
The screenplay has too much emotions for my taste (so far as my taste in murder mystery go).
However, Timothy Dalton makes the episode totally worth it.
THE HINDI SERIES: CHARLIE CHOPRA AND THE MYSTERY OF SOLANG VALLEY (2023)
I was excited to hear Vishal Bharadwaj is adapting few Agatha Christie novels. I loved the way he has adapted few Shakespearean plays for Indian viewers. I started watching the series with lots of expectation. That was a huge mistake.
The Sittaford Mystery is adapted as a 6 episodes Hindi series. The plot has been indianised and the events happen in post-Covid world, in Himachal Pradesh of India.
Captain from book is Brigadier Meharbaan S. Rawat. Like the book he is ex-army man, rich, and confirmed bachelor because he was jilted in youth. He lives in Manali while his family and friends live in Solang Valley (a small county and miles away from Manali). However, unlike the book he is in constant touch with his family. He is weary of constantly being touched for giving financial assistance to his brood.
His brood includes two siblings and their children. One sibling is the deceased sister like the book. She has three children. One daughter with a failed writer as husband (like the book). They need money badly for day-to-day expenses. And then there is Jimmy Nautiyal, who needs money urgently. The third one is Billu Nautiyal, a sketchy character (like James’s brother in the book).
Unlike the book the other sibling of Brigadier is a brother, Mohan Rawat. This retired professor and his homeopathic doctor/hypnotist wife Janki are desperate for money as their son Varun has some serious ailment. This is comparable with the sick brother-in-law of the Captain from the book.
The strange mother-daughter (refer to the book) duo live in a cottage and the daughter is supposed to be the medium. She predicts the murder in the séance.
The invalid shrewd elderly lady, Ms. Bharucha is totally dependant on her help, whom Brigadier has asked to leave over a small issue. As Ms. Bharucha’s cottage owned by him he can dictate who can or who can’t stay in it.
Brigadier has a ski resort in Solang Valley, which is managed by his best friend Colonel Anand Barua. He is totally devoted to Brigadier like the Captain’s best friend in the book. Unlike the book here Barua is totally dependent on his friend (as him being his employer).
Thus, more or less everyone is dependent on the Brigadier. Although he helps them but does it unwillingly. He is kind of person who shows his “liberal” attitude by not reporting a servant who does not have the proper paper to be citizen of India and yet happily lets someone close to him die happily without giving them the required financial assistance. It is not surprising he becomes the murder victim.
Emily, or in this case Charlie Chopra is at the centre of the series. In the series this middleclass Punjabi girl is a professional detective. She is independent and deeply in love. But unlike the book’s Emily she is not blind or irrational about it.
Her object of attraction is Jimmy Nautiyal. Unlike the Jameses from above he is not unscrupulous or spoilt. He seemed like a decent and sincere boy with solid plans for his future.
Sitaram Bisht is the journalist and he befriends Charlie under false pretext like Marple episode. Then Charlie proposes to find the murderer. Their partnership goes beyond murder investigation There is lots of chemistry between them.
Unlike the book, the inspector of the series Narayan Joshi is petty and egoist. He undermines Charlie at every step. This creates problem for her. And then as Charlie nears the truth the hurdles increase. Danger comes closer and closer. While all these going on a huge truth unveils shaking her from the core. Can she go on and solve the mystery?
End Words
The premise of the series is almost same as the book. This is more loyal to the book compared to Marple’s episode. However, the plot of the series is expanded to cater a length of 6 episodes. There are many extras including two extra murders. There is also an extended ending in this series. The primary one is same as the book but the final one is different.
They have kept the blizzard during the murder as the original murder. I wish they had have made it more Indian by changing the disaster to monsoon torrential rain. How about a flooded Mumbai!
I will give screenwriters this for taking care of the loose points in the book (as I have mentioned above). They have made the murderer’s method more systematic without depending on coincidents. Yet they made a character behave oddly all of a sudden. Every man does not sleep around, or do they?
The second oddness is, if one is trying to hide the fact that they are singer then they at least have the minimum intelligence to not to do Riyaz (practice), which can be heard easily from outside.
For me the biggest letdown in the series is the actress playing Charlie. She just did not work for me. Along that, the makers have made her talk in pure Punjabi a lot although the series is supposed to be in Hindi. There is subtitle still my viewing experience suffered.
Ratna Pathak Shah is a good actress but as a cool grass snorting old lady she seemed like “trying too hard”. But the Lara Dutta (playing the mother from the mother-daughter duo) takes the cake. Her UP (Uttar Pradesh) accent is too terrible and cringey.
At least we know she is trying to talk like a person from Uttar Pradesh. What accent exactly the actor playing Sitaram goes for? Tamil? Harianvi?
The rest of the cast play their roles more or less nicely. Neena Gupta Janki is as usual brilliant. Nasiruddin Shah is wasted in a minor role.
While investigating Charlie gets to know about a fourth murder. She does not do anything about it. Maybe because it is not her case. She considers the circumstances but in final disclose of her case she does not consider the circumstances.
In the end, I would say it is one time watch maybe but total disappointment. Not at all, the usual level of Vishal Bharadwaj. I hope his next Christie adaptation would be better. And also, I am kind of hoping he would make Christie’s famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot Odia, whom everyone mistakes for Bengali. For non-Christie fans, Poirot is Belgian but everyone mistakes him for French.
Musings 
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