The Perfect Murder is a 1988 English-language detective film directed by Zafar Hai and produced by Merchant Ivory Productions. Based on H.R.F. Keating’s novel, the story follows Inspector Ganesh Ghote (Naseeruddin Shah) as he investigates the assault on a Parsi man named Mr. Perfect (Dinshaw Daji). Teamed with Swedish criminologist Axel Svensson (Stellan Skarsgård), Ghote navigates Bombay’s complex social and criminal landscape.​

Pearl Padamsee appears as a nurse, contributing to the film’s rich tapestry of characters. The cast also includes Amjad Khan as Lala Heera Lal, Madhur Jaffrey as Mrs. Lal, and Ratna Pathak Shah as Pratima Ghote. The film offers a satirical look at bureaucracy and corruption in 1980s Bombay.