'Anni: The Honeymoon Murder' review: True crime, in the age of CCTV

The docuseries uses archival footage as well as interviews with investigators, family members and others to capture what happened on that night in 2010.

Horrific - that’s the word to describe the killing of a young Indian-origin woman Anni Ninna Dewani in South Africa in 2010. Hailing from Sweden, Anni was in South Africa on honeymoon with her London-based Indian-origin husband Shrien Dewani. The couple found themselves in a crime-ridden locality of Cape Town, where they were carjacked. While her husband was bundled out of the car, Anni was murdered.

Discovery Plus has now made a four-episode docuseries on her death and the investigation into it.

The investigation

It could well have been an open and shut case of a hijacking leading to robbery and subsequent killing. But the investigation led to more questions than answers: Why did the hijackers kill the woman when they got what they wanted from her and the husband? Why did they throw out the husband and keep driving on with the woman? How did the husband seem rather calm despite the hijacking? And then the most dreadful question of them all, did the husband mastermind the killing and having it masqueraded as a robbery?’

The Discovery Plus docudrama Anni: The Honeymoon Murder goes deep into this horrific saga that made the headlines back in 2010 when the news spread like wildfire across the globe. A young woman who was full of life, a man who was doing quite well for himself, and then a bisexual angle coming in as well where the husband confessed to being in relationships with other men. As the investigation proceeded, there were secrets that came out which led to the family of the woman challenging the man if he was indeed telling the complete truth.

The series

The docudrama series goes deep into details, as is the case with most Discovery Plus offerings backed by good research. Moreover, there are interviews with investigators, lawyers, family members, suspects, culprits, cops, journalists and others who give an account of what happened that fateful night.

What makes Anni: The Honeymoon Murder all the more engaging is the manner in which real footage is used to tell the tale. Since the story is set in 2010, there is a lot of CCTV footage available, right from the hotel corridors to the restaurants to the streets where the couple is shown to be together. This isn’t all, as there is a lot of incriminating evidence that is brought to the fore as well, something that makes you start solving the case along with the ones who actually presided over the narrative.

Lasting close to three hours, this one turns out to be a blink-and-you-will-miss affair where you do get a fair inkling of where the case is headed and then look at it all totally shocked when the finale arrives.

A one of its kind docudrama series that you just can’t miss, Anni: The Honeymoon Murder is one of the best docudramas to have arrived in the world of OTT in 2021. A must watch.