- Released: 8 October 2021, On Netflix
- Creators: Leena Yadav and Anubhav Chopra
During the summer of 2018, the people of Delhi woke up to a bizarre crime. 11 people ranging from the age group of 80 to 15 years, were found hanging in their house in the Burari locality. Netflix's new docuseries, House of Secrets, a three-part series, attempts at understanding what transpired behind this. One morning, the neighbours take the liberty of walking into the Bhatia house after they find their milk packets at the doorstep and their shop unopened. And they walked right into a scene of horror. Every commentary or narration in House of Secrets is by people directly involved in the case. Neighbours, relatives, friends, police officers. Extremely excited officers may I add. Delhi had not had such a case in a long time. And finding 11 people hanging in their houses paved the way for a lot of sensationalisation. Was it mass murder? Or a mass suicide? House of Secrets documents everything from the second the bodies are found, till the day the case was announced solved. But one thing that even seasoned Crime Branch officers can never tire from saying was how bizarre and mind-boggling the case is. How can 15-year-old boys commit suicide? At the first sight, the police instantly register a case of homicide. They investigate all the angles. Fine combing through the house for shreds of evidence, something to explain this unexplainable, they find diaries written from as back as 2007 till the days leading up to this. And that finally brings closure to everyone involved. The final verdict: Shared psychosis leading up to accidental deaths. After getting away with the details of the case House of Secrets delves into something deeper. What could have caused this? Where did we as a society fail to see the red flags? If we had asked the right questions could this have been prevented? Bringing in several psychologists, psychiatrists to do a psychological autopsy. Explaining in-depth about what was happening inside the brain of the mastermind. And not just that, but the deep impact and huge void left behind by this family. For being such a loved and known family how could people have missed the secrets that built this house's walls? House of Secrets leaves you with a lot of questions. When they tell you they are okay, are they really? When something like this happens is sensationalising the news the need of the hour? Why do we still consider mental health to be something spoken about only after it has caused havoc and not before it? House of Secrets will not give you the answer to these questions. But it stands correctly responsible for raising them. By SB
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