 |
| Netflix poster. |
-Brian Mendonca
Name: House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths
Director: Leena Yadav
Co-director: Anubhav Chopra
Genre: Documentary
Platform: Netflix
Series: Limited
Episodes: 3
Music: A.R. Rahman
Run time: E1 45:13; E2: 42:13; E3: 47:13
Year: 2021
House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (2021) is a take on the deaths of 11 members of the same family discovered in a building in Sant Nagar, Burari, North Delhi. The act was perpetrated perhaps on the night of 30 June 2018 - in the month of Ashadh. Their bodies - hanging from the rooftop grill - were found on 1 July 2018. The banyan tree formation suggests the badh tapasya ritual where the bodies hang like the roots of a banyan tree.
Lavanya Joon
The incident would not have been revisited by me, except for the fact that a young girl Lavanya Joon (18) - on whom I wrote a poem - died tragically a short distance away from where we stay in Porvorim. It happened at 2.20 a.m. when her car was rammed by another car when it was crossing at the intersection opposite Holy Family Church, Porvorim. The place is a death trap, and I have had a few close shaves myself. Oncoming traffic simply hurtles past, the pillars erected for the elevated corridor, obstructing the view.
Lavanya was from Sant Nagar, Burari, Delhi.
Delhi Crime Scene: 1999-2008
By 2011 we had headed back from Delhi to Goa. My editorial stint in Delhi began with news of the Jessica Lal murder at the Tamarind Court restaurant, Qutub Colonnade, Mehrauli in 1999. I could see the Qutub Minar from my barsati (roof-top room) in Sheikh Sarai, so it was a bit too close for comfort. Neelam Kataria was an ELT colleague. When her son Nitish Kataria was murdered in 2002, I could feel her pain.
Pushkin Chandra was perhaps murdered by a gay lover in Anand Lok in 2004, not far from where I lived. The Nithari murders in Noida and the finding of the remains of women and children in 2006 made us hang our heads in shame. This was followed by the double murder of 14-yr-old Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj, also in Noida, in 2008.
House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths
In the Burari case the assumptions were very different. It was believed that one of the family members - Lalit Singh Chundawat (45) - brainwashed the remaining 10 members of his joint family to perform the badh tapasya, a ritual spanning seven days. This would ensure that his dead father would be restored to life. It would also result in the release of four other spirits trapped in the building. Since it was a matter of family honour, no one, outside the family was informed. There seems to be a play of guilt and redemption through sacrifice - as seen in cults.
What sucks you into the vortex of the House of Secrets is the music by A.R. Rahman. The three episodes have a different tempo.
E1: 11 Bodies
The series opens with a siren wailing. Drone view of night in a highly populated area of Delhi. Morning. Traffic around India Gate to create the connect. Close up of packets of milk. It seems to be an ordinary day. When the bodies are discovered there is a commotion. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrives. The hand-held shaky camera being used extensively gives a feeling of imbalance, of dread.
Q.1 Why was the front door open? If the act was being committed would not the front door be closed?
Q.2 What did the 2-minute video show? A person got into the house, filmed the scene, and made it viral. What did it explain to the police? The crime scene is not recreated.
E2: 11 Diaries
11 diaries that were found near a 'havan kund' (ritual urn for lighting fire). The ritual was conducted the previous night. The 11 diaries were written during each year from 2007 to 2018. Each year there were instructions from the dead father - through Lalit - advising how each member of the family should control himself or herself. Lalit became the medium.
However, Vishakha Chundawat (Dinesh's daughter in Kota) did not notice any diaries in the Burari home when she visited. The cousins had formed a WhatsApp group to prepare for Priyanka's wedding. Priyanka did not mention anything was amiss. In fact, she was discussing what make-up to wear for the wedding.
Q.3 When did Lalit get time to write the 11 diaries over a period of 11 years?
Q.4 Did his family not think it was odd?
Q.5 Why does the investigation rely solely on the diaries? Could they have been planted?
E3: Beyond 11
The focus is on Lalit here. His bike accident (1988); the assault on him in Delhi (2004); losing his voice; his withdrawal, and the death of his father (2006). The narrative shifts to the past continuous. 'Lalit was telling them to do this . . .' When Priyanka, one of the daughters, got engaged on 17 June 2018, Lalit may have felt that the secrets of the house, his indoctrination, would be compromised.
Q.6. Why is Lalit the prime suspect? What is the proof?
Q.7 Could someone have an enmity with the family?
Q.8 Why sensationalize the issue?
Migration
Lalit's was a tale of migration. The Chundawat's hailed from Sawa village in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, where his elder brother lives with his family. Lalit's father, Bhupal Singh moved to Tohana, Haryana to rear cattle and tend fields in 1979. They lived here for 10 years.
The patriarch moved to Delhi after selling his fields in 1989-1990. However, because he married into a Bhatia family from Punjab, people started calling him Bhatia-saab.
Q.9 Has there been a miscarriage of justice because of a media trial?
Q.10 It is unlikely that no one resisted when they were being bound. This is to insult their intelligence. Who else was there? What was the motive?
Coda
When the bodies were laid out for cremation there were not enough priests and not enough people. The hordes which lapped up the spectacle of their gruesome deaths were all absent.
Questions linger about what really happened. In an unsolved case with 'no witnesses, no survivors, and no known offenders,' the documentary is compromised by tilting the blame on a person who cannot defend himself.
The takeaway is that we live in communities but are often clueless about what goes on in the lives of those around us. The serial encourages us to have conversations about behaviour which does not appear normal - and to intervene before it is too late.
-----------------------------------
Picture courtesy: binged(dot)com. House of Secrets viewed on Netflix on 19 November 2026. Updated 21/11/25.
Comments