'Raat Akeli Hai' Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui-Radhika Apte's over-detailed 'whodunit' should have been a web show

'Raat Akeli Hai'

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Shweta Tripathi, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Nishant Dahiya, Ila Arun, Swanand Kirkire, Aditya Srivastava, Khalid Tyabji and others.

Director: Honey Trehan

Duration: Two hours 29 minutes

Where to Watch: Netflix

Critics' Rating: 2.5

'Raat Akeli Hai' Story:

A newly married landlord (Khalid Tyabji) is murdered on the day of his marriage in the presence of his whole family in the house. The cop's (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) investigation is complicated at every step by the secretive family of the victim.

'Raat Akeli Hai' Review:

Whodunit genre of movies has come into inception since the era of films started. In these many decades or rather century, we have seen tons of murder-mysteries which are solved and the most shocking person turns out to be the killer. Over time, people who live movies seem to understand the writer's mind and predict the suspense way before the investigating person does it in the movies. When Raat Akeli Hai trailer came out, it gave me major vibes of Murder on the Orient Express and Knives Out.

The film starts with twin murders and fasts forward to five years when another murder takes place of a patriarch and that too on his wedding night. The investigating officer is appointed played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui who sees everyone as accused or eye-witness for this heinous crime. As he further investigates, he finds out that the person, the landlord got married is a young woman Radha played by none other than Radhika Apte. Citing her as a gold-digger, he along with other family members think that she must have done it to become the successor of the house and all his properties. 

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But Radha has a past and Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin) is a part of it. But that's not the past which is being unfolded in the film, there are many. Yadav seems to be a misfit officer, but he knows what he has signed up for and has to face the corrupted officials and politicians too. Landlord's family include his daughter (Shweta Tripathi), her alcoholic and angry husband. The victim also has a sister and her daughter played by Shivani Raghuvanshi and Nishant Dahiya as the son, who is the potential successor of the landlord. The on and off the involvement of politician Munna Raja played by Aditya Srivastava make him one of the accused too. 

While investigating the murder, there's another plan of killing more people associated with it. However, each of the family members has a reason to kill the patriarch, Raghubeer Singh. One of them successfully executes it! But as you watch the film, you might get a hint of 'whodunit' but not the answer to the 'why' probably.

Nawazuddin and Radhika are indeed the stars of the film and there's no confusion about that. They make sure to own every frame with their subtle performance like in every outing. 

Raat Akeli Hai screams talented actors coming together but they are hardly used and deserved more screen presence. Owing to the film's runtime of two hours 29 minutes, I wished to see more of Shweta, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Swanand Kirkire. 

Nishant Dahiya is indeed proving his mettle with each movie he is doing. His last outing Kedarnath showed him as the antagonist and the serious guy. While in this, we are left with two minds, whether to empathise and also doubting him as the culprit until the end.

Raat Akeli Hai shows all the problems which are still stuck in the Indian society, be it casteism, racism or classism. Well, if these are the problems, misogyny has to be there too!

The film is very distractive in several instances for me which wouldn't have been the case if it was a web show. The over-detailing seems to be unnecessary and could have been ignored. I couldn't get too engaged with the film and wanted to get done with it to know who the killer is.

Honey Trehan who is one of the leading casting directors makes his directorial debut with Raat Akeli Hai. He did a fab job by casting a whale of talented actors in one film and for his first, good execution in direction too. Smita Singh's screenplay showed the complexities of each character but not the screentime of the actors. 

Overall Raat Akeli Hai could have been a great watch if things were minimized or it was turned into a Netflix original series rather! 

'Raat Akeli Hai' Verdict:

Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte overpower in this film filled with talented actors.