W HODUNIT WITH NOIR EDGE

The mood for mystery is set right at the outset, in the opening shot. A truck follows a car down a pitch-dark highway and rams it off the road. The car turns turtle but its two passengers survive –only momentarily, for the truck driver will presently alight, and nish the formality of eliminating his victims.

moves ahead, there are twists galore to keep you guessing right till the end.

a way that when the truth is revealed, you’re in for a surprise.

Thematically, debutant director Honey Trehan’s lm could remind you of last year’s Daniel Craig-starrer Knives Out, though this lm narrates a very different storyline. The crusty small-town milieu here is another reason this lm manages to deliver with a slice of originality.

Fast forward ve years later, on the night of wedding to his much-younger mistress Radha (Radhika Apte), the aged patriarch (Khalid Tyabji) of a rich and power-wielding household is found dead on his nuptial bed. The family members immediately accuse the young Radha. But when the investigating cop Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) arrives, he realises this is no open and shut case. Things are far more complicated. Jatil understands almost every member in the household could have a motive to kill the old man. As the story

Smita Singh’s writing rolls in dark secrets, forbidden passions, unsavoury truths, haunting suspense and just the adequate amount of violence to set up an interesting narrative. Sure there are the convoluted edges, but clever storytelling manages to retain your interest.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte manage to share some brief, crackling chemistry in a couple of scenes, although this is far from a love story. Individually, both these phenomenal actors deliver the quality of performance you would expect from them.

Raat Akeli Hai is one of the better offerings from Net ix lately. That should matter a lot, considering rival OTT platforms have been revving up the entertainment quotient over the lockdown months.

Vinayak Chakravorty

August 2020

By Minal KhOna

Minal Khona has been reading tarot cards for the last two decades. She uses her intuition and connect with the cards mostly to help people.