Raat Akeli Hai: a classic whodunnit with a Poirot-style cop

Whodunnit murder mysteries – is a genre which has been a favorite of story tellers and audiences since ages. Our minds immediately associate this with Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason or Hercule Poirot. Despite watching and reading a lot on this subject, it continues to evoke interest. A plot where a murder happens and a detective investigates to find the killer – that’s how simple the basic premise of stories in this segment are usually. What makes it work is that it does not turn out to be as simple as it seems and far more interesting than it sounds.

 

Streaming now on Netflix, is one such story, where an inspector investigates a patriarch’s death after a family gathering gone wrong. No, I am not talking about Knives Out, another brilliant movie starring Daniel Craig with a similar plot. I am describing the plot of Raat Akeli Hai, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui who plays an inspector investing the murder of an influential person in a small town in UP. The victim is murdered in his haveli where his family has gathered for his second wedding. The family members have their own dark secrets which unravel along with the investigation. Set in Uttar Pradesh, this is a male-dominated society where even women discriminate against other women in favor of men.

 

The style of this whodunit is very classic in nature, in a sense that it focuses on the investigation with limited parallel developments. We see this world from the perspective of Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin) - a typo in a school certificate leads to his name changing from Jatin to Jatil. Inspector Jatil is a middle-aged unmarried man looking for his perfect bride. He says on the contrary but clearly values outer appearances in his prospective bride and his own. He applies a fairness cream and does not prefer noodles as one does not look very aesthetic while eating it. His character is more Hercule Poirot and less Sherlock Holmes. Like Poirot, he relies on his intuition and assessment of people’s characters equally along with the hard evidence.

 

As we have now come to expect, Nawazuddin puts in another good performance – what we don’t expect though is him playing a cop on the right side of the law. But given his pedigree, he plays his role effortlessly. Radhika Apte’s character is the mistress turned newly wedded wife of the victim, giving us that character in such mysteries who like the obvious killer. She compliments Nawazuddin well with a good performance. Her accent seems authentic and performance genuine.

 

It’s the directorial debut of Honey Trehan who has been a casting director for movies which have had some of the finest ensemble cast such Maqbool, Omkara, Kaminey and Hindi Medium. Given this, it is no surprise that we have some fine actors casted in supporting roles. You see familiar faces who fit in perfectly. Ila Arun, in a short role, plays mother to inspector Jatil worried that he would never find a bride he feels is good enough. Tigmanshu Dhulia and Aditya Srivastava play pivotal roles as the SSP and local politician respectively.

 

This is a murder mystery where the audience is not privy to all information available to the investigative officers. We get montages with background music during some key interrogations. It, thus, does not expect its audiences to be able to guess the culprit Also, there are some contrived developments as well. However, these are minor distractions to what is otherwise a good screenplay. The visuals, as the name of the movie suggests, are largely set in dark but are still vibrant. This is another one of those movies (adding to the list of recently released web shows) where the essence of rural India is captured effectively.

 

Bollywood does not churn out too many ‘closed circle’ mysteries with the perpetrator one among from a limited number of suspects. Raat Akeli Hai makes an effort to set the record straight on that front. Although a slow burn, it does a good job while it is at it.

 

                                                                                                                                      

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