'The Night Manager': A thriller that loses steam

The Night Manager

Hindi (Hotstar)

Creator: Sandeep Modi

Cast: Aditya Roy Kapur, Anil Kapoor, Tillotama Shome

Rating: 2.5/5

For a reluctant TV viewer, few things are as annoying as a thriller losing steam after a gripping start. ‘The Night Manager’, an Indian remake of the British television series of the same name, which is based on an espionage novel by John le Carré, is a case in point.

Currently, Season 1 is on air with a package of four episodes of watchable length.

The first two episodes are compelling. Shantanu Sengupta aka Shaan (Aditya Roy Kapur) is posted as a night manager at a posh hotel in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. Outside the hotel, the Rohingya genocide is escalating. Inside, an imarti-loving teenage girl is planning to escape from her older, abusive husband, but not before exposing his liaison with Shailendra Rungta aka Shelly (Anil Kapoor), an illegal arms dealer who is masquerading as a suave shipping magnate.

Shaan’s former navy officer instincts kick in. He tries to save the girl along with Lipika Saikia Rao (Tillotama Shome), an officer from India’s intel R&W. They fail. They live with guilt. They lie low. That’s until one day when Shelly re-enters their life.

Lipika, who has been itching to expose Shelly, ‘the merchant of death’ to the world, wants Shaan to infiltrate Shelly’s inner circle in Sri Lanka.

The second half gets achingly predictable and slow. Shelly has an arm candy (Sobhita Dhulipala) and a son he dotes on. His friends are like family but all is fair in business and war. He trusts and suspects Shaan in equal measure. When R&W chief starts thwarting Lipika’s mission, you just yawn. When Shelly asks his right-hand man BJ, a gay man (Saswata Chatterjee), to stay in control around men, you cringe. Are we not over this insensitive trope yet?

In terms of performances, Aditya is on point as an observant, stiff but courteous, conflicted ‘night manager’. But he falters in the gentler roles when he is bonding with Shelly’s son in the kitchen and fish market. Anil Kapoor is restrained. Maybe he gets menacing in Season 2. Sobhita’s eyes give away the pain she is hiding behind her luxe life. Tillotama’s Lipika is fun to watch. She isn’t fighting the system in high heels and creaseless pantsuits. She gets sweaty, grabs sandwiches on way to important meetings, and comes home to a dinner prepared by her husband.

I hope the series will dwell on the Rohingya refugee crisis, take us back to the untold lives of night managers, and shake off the predictability that the teaser of Season 2 is rid of.