‘Raat Akeli Hai’ wastes no time at the start. You get introduced to unmarried inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) visiting the crime scene late at night.
On the night of his wedding, Raghubeer Singh (Khalid Tyabji), head of the wealthy and influential Kanpur family has been murdered. He has been shot and brutally assaulted. Yes, now in rest of film the inspector will find out who the murderer is? Why was the murder committed? Ans off-course how? Oh, Raghubeer Singh’s wife was killed in a road accident some five years back.
The film, after an impressive fast launch into the crime, slows down to showcase dummy potential murderers and identifying their motives. As there is no will, the new wife and now the young widow Radha ( Radhika Apte) is now the legitimate owner of whatever property there is. Is she the murderer or a victim of the situation?
So one at a time, the focus shifts from all members of the family. His son (Nitesh Tiwari), pregnant daughter (Shweta Tripathi) and her husband, brother-in-law (Swanand Kirkire), Nephew, Niece and their mother, widow Radhika Apte, young help and an old lady.
All have been at home when the murder took place. It is the marriage season, and no one heard the bullet being fired.
There is a political angle and police nexus too. Powerful local politician Munna Raja (Aditya Srivastava) tries helping the family by getting the new widow blamed for the murder.
Now it is a handful of characters. Enough time is wasted in developing each of them as a possible suspect. The result, the film slows down and even after a long passage ( 2 hr 29 Minutes), it needs to be wrapped up with each possible candidate within the family, reacting to new revelations.
Illa Arun once again impresses in her short role of Jatil’s mother, who is trying to get her son married. And she along with the people in the police chowki are the only one not linked to the murder.
As a debut film of Honey Trehan as a director, he does well to hold you together, but a faster narrative and better edit could have made it brilliant.
There are enough one-liners, punches and retorts in the film. Which you would enjoy. Unfortunately, the film is not a compilation of one-liner and punch lines. The film lacks excitement and does not build curiosity to know the murderer.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte both are wasted in the film. They perform. They create some amount of movement in the otherwise relaxed film Rat Akleli Hai- toh mai kya karu.
In case you do not have anything to watch, then think of RAAT AKELI HAI. I am a bit harsher on the film as I expected a lot more form Nawazuddin and Radhika Apte- definitely when people appreciate the film. Now don’t tell me – I am seriously joking.
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BLOG/98/2020
