Netflix’s new true-crime series ‘House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths’ revisits one of India’s most shocking crimes in years that shook the whole nation with the deaths of 11 members of a family in July 2018.
While the incident was covered widely in national media with a sensationalist outlook, director Leena Yadav largely allows the story to reveal itself by taking the help of cops, journalists, medical experts, psychologists, and of course friends, relatives, and neighbors of the deceased Chundawat family.
Going back to the incident, three years ago, one summer morning 11 members of a joint family were found hanging in their home in Burari, Northeast Delhi. Among the dead were the widowed matriarch, her daughter, two of her sons, and their families. It was one of their neighbors who reported it first after noticing irregularities in the family’s daily routine.
As the incident was reported by several reporters from almost all the news media outlets, this unbelievable tragedy easily caught the attention of people around the world by pushing several conspiracy theories on whether it was a mass suicide, murder, or any kind of occult ritual killing.
Watch the trailer here for “House of Secrets”
‘House of Secrets’ very rightly tries to initiate the conversation on what went wrong in the family. The three-episode series interviews many professionals involved in the case, including a few Delhi Police officers, investigative officers from the crime branch, and medical experts giving their perspectives in an attempt to join the dots.
While, in the end, the cops pointed out this as mass suicide for occult reasons, psychologists termed the incident as a result of ‘shared psychotic disorder’ where one person’s delusional beliefs are transmitted to others, as they are unable to draw a line between faith and delusion.
Nevertheless, those neighbors, family friends, or people, will continue to ask questions about what went wrong. Rightly so, as such an incident is not just disturbing and chilling but saddest to the core, as we keep on wondering about the human mind and what it can do to us.
This three-part true crime docu-series “House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths” is a must-watch as it’s a true crime story and the makers are insightful in presenting such a disturbing and complex case. Moreover, the series also throws some light on the taboo of mental illness in India and why it’s the need of the hour to talk openly about any kind of mental ailments and find treatments for those.
Where to watch "House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths" (2021)
