‘Desi’ Sherlock cracks murder mystery in style
Raat Akeli Hai is a gripping murder mystery that is streaming now on Netflix. This Nawazuddin Siddiqui starring thriller traverses through many twists and turns before solving the mystery behind the murder of a rich businessman.
Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin) assumes the charge of investigation officer of the suspicious murder of Raghubeer Singh (Khalid Tyabji) who gets killed on the day of his wedding with his mistress Radha (Radhika Apte). The needle of suspicion points at all the family members particularly towards the bride Radha as she is the only outsider in the family but Jatil has other ideas.
Jatil clinically and patiently collects all the evidence. He is more like a detective rather than a police officer as he digs deep into the case without leaving anything going unnoticed from his eagle-like vision.
Jatil who gets used to the tantrums of his mother to get him married believes that the time is yet to come for him to tie the knot notwithstanding his dark complexion and his efforts to make it shine with fairness cream. Why can we see the change of name of fairness cream used by men?
While all the family members vehemently believe that Radha is the murderer, Jatil thinks the other way due to his earlier encounter with her which was rather unexpected and took place in a train compartment. So he digs further to get hold of the real criminal, as a result, he faces the wrath of the local leader Munna Raja (Aditya Srivastav) who wishes to strengthen his ties with the family of the deceased Raghubeer Singh. But in the end, he has to bite the dust due to Jatil’s perseverance and steal like demeanor which finally led him to unearth the startling truth behind the murder.
When Nawazuddin and Radhika are there together, fireworks bound to be there as they are the most accomplished actors who can outperform others with their sheer brilliance. Sacred Games, Ghoomketu and now Raat Akeli Hai, what a transformation for Nawaz and his performance in these shows is enough to prove how versatile he is and Radhika is as usual spellbinding after Ghoul. She needs to get more challenging roles which furthermore explore multitude of layers of her talent and her role in Raat Akeli Hai is a cakewalk for her and she has done a commendable job.
Picking up of Nawazuddin for the main character Jatil by the director Honey Trehan proves how shrewd he is in his selection process being a casting head himself. His choice is just spot on and no other actor can be imagined in the role of Jatil other than Nawazuddin. His perfect casting and deft handling of narrative penned by Smita Singh who contributed with an amazing story and screenplay is top-notch.
All other actors Shweta Tripathi as Karuna Singh, Shree Dhar Dubey as Narendra Singh, Nishant Dahiya as Vikram Singh, Riya Shukla as Chunni and Ila Arun as Jatil’s mother has performed at their best.
The photography by Pankaj Kumar has enhanced the mood as he captured the right kind of night mood required for the film. Music by Sneha Khanwalkar is praiseworthy and goes along with the narrative. The editing by Sreekar Prasad is crisp though it gives a feeling at one stage that the total run time of 149 minutes is too long for a murder mystery but this is compensated by a taut screenplay in keeping the audience hooked on to the screens.
One of the best thriller movies in recent times and can be watched for Nawazuddin whose performance with a perfect display of an array of emotions with Sherlock Holmes-like detection makes the whole film a great watch.
A theatrical release would have done a lot of good to this film and its producers but due to the release on the OTT platform, Raat Akeli Hai may not reach the majority of the audience which remains as the biggest disadvantage of this highly engrossing film.
Rating: 3/5
