The crime drama 'Monica, O My Darling', starring Rajkummar Rao, Radhika Apte, and Huma Qureshi, has premiered on Netflix and appears to be a smash-hit with audiences. The complex dark comedy directed by Vasan Bala revolves around an aspirational middle-class man who gets wrapped up in a labyrinth of deceit and blackmail.
In addition to its captivating narrative, the pulp crime flick also has a plethora of hilarious references from certain films. The movie's title is obviously a nod to the Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja song, but it also features many other references to Bollywood thrillers, particularly those directed by Sriram Raghavan, such 'Badlapur', 'Johnny Gaddar', and 'Ek Hasina Thi'.
IMDb India, in a Twitter thread, listed a few cinematic references that were hidden as easter eggs in the film.
Radhika Madan and Abhimanyu Dasani, the lead duo from 'Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota', are also featured in the Vasan Bala directorial along with other pop-culture references.
A list of several directors, including Anurag Kashyap, Abbas Mastan, Quentin Tarantino, and Vishal Bharadwaj, with their house numbers, was seen in the scene where Zayn Marie Khan's character Shalu was talking on the phone outside her home.
The dialogue delivered by Huma Qureshi in one scene brought to mind Tabu's lines from 'Maqbool'.
One can also spot Hotel Prince Amar, which is named after the role played by Dev Anand in the movie 'Jewel Thief'.
In addition to this thread, a Twitter user by the name of Incurato went on to compile a lengthy thread of all the hat-tips, and references that were hidden throughout the movie. There are spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the movie yet.
Meanwhile, Keigo Higashino's Burutasu no Shinzou, a Japanese mystery novel about the human employees of a robotics company, acted as the inspiration for Yogesh Chandekar's 'Monica, O My Darling'.