Title: Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders
Director: Honey Trehan
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Deepti Naval, Radhika Apte, Chitrangda Singh, Sanjay Kapoor, Rajat Kapoor, Revathy, Ila Aru
Where: Netflix
Rating: 3 stars
Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders is the second chapter of the 2020 Netflix film Raat Akeli Hai, which has Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) investigating the brutal murder of the wealthy and influential Bansal family in their mansion. Directed by Honey Trehan, the story is by Smita Singh.
The opening scene, through its sheer use of background music reminds one of Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic The Birds (1963), when an entire bunch keep dying due to poisoning, setting the atmosphere for another massacre just waiting to happen.
Actors’ performances
First off, and I've been wanting to say this since I saw part 1, Ila Arun- Nawazudin Siddiqui's mother-son jodi is one of the best written and enacted you would see in a long time, but you need to see part 1 for that, where it's essence and origin lies.
Now, moving on to the others, what a surprise it was to see Deepti Naval in a role we wouldn't have expected her to be in, playing a bald headed Guru Ma, who isn't as pure as her white robes would suggest, talking in riddles and getting inside the head of Nawazudin.
Revathy, who shall forever haunt us from her green eyed scene in Ram Gopal Varma's cult horror movie Raat (1992), is in a friendlier avatar here as a no-nonsense forensic doctor. One scene of hers to watch out for is when she is explaing the timeline of the murders and how they took place, along with a volunteer acting as the multiple murder victims.
Chitrangadha's opening scene is her most impactful, where the close-ups and music add to the mystery. Rajat Kapoor as usual fits into his role as the police commissioner perfectly, while Priyanka Setia is convincing and dogged in her portrayal. All the remaining cast members have been well chosen.
Smita Singh can't seem to disappoint, first with what I feel is the best Hindi horror series Khauff, and then the Raat Akeli Hai series, and along with Honey Trehan, they seem to be churning out gritty, mysterious stories.
In conclusion, one point which needs to added is how a particular scene in the movie lays bare the reality of certain high profile...or for that matter, even normal murder cases. They are solved sometimes in drawing rooms with the police head, an influential member related to the case and a media mogul (Sanjay Kapur here) in attendance-and they decide what would be palatable to the public and benefits them the best, which may have nothing to do with the actual facts of the case.
FPJ verdict
Watch it...unless ofcourse crime thrillers aren’t your cup of tea.
