Credit: Netflix
‘Raat Akeli Hai’ (2020) was a sleeper hit, and rightly so. Atmospheric, taut, and powered by pitch-perfect performances, it won over both audiences and critics. Five years later, the night has arrived again — darker, more sinister — but alas, with a screenplay that is not a patch on the original.
The story has a lot of meat, sorry, bodies. Loosely based on the Burari deaths (there is no such admission by the team), this time, Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) stumbles upon the massacre of the Bansal family at their farmhouse. The circumstances immediately point to an inside job. Soon, a Guru-ma (Deepti Naval, in a strangely muted role) enters the picture. Family secrets tumble out one by one, while suspicion shifts between family members and domestic staff. Behind it all lies a familiar stew of power plays, murky deals and bitter property disputes.
The film plays out largely as a procedural, but the nervous unpredictability that made the first edition so compelling is sorely missed. There is a clear attempt at social commentary, and the screenplay would have benefited had it trusted visual storytelling more instead of spelling things out. The pace slackens intermittently, and several scenes feel repetitive. Despite these shortcomings, the film remains watchable.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the film’s biggest asset. He slips into the role of Jatil with an ease we have come to expect. His eyes do much of the acting — the resigned fatigue, the scorn for his superiors, and the irritation-laced affection for his mother (played with warmth by Ila Arun) conveyed through a glance or two. Revathi, as the forensic doctor, is a welcome surprise.