Raat Akeli Hai opens with a man ruthlessly murdering a woman and her driver, driving their corpses to a tannery and melting their bodies down to the ground. You might expect the narrative to expand on this immediately, but the film takes a turn, jumping five years forward to a wedding in a small Indian town called Kaanpur. By midnight, the celebrations have ceased and the police have been called; Raghuveer Singh, the groom and patriarch of his family, has been found dead in his room.
Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) arrives at the scene, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. He soon learns that the extended family living in the mansion, from nephews and sister-in-laws to maids, are all possibly complicit in the crime. The most obvious suspect is the new bride, Radha (Radhika Apte) who was bought by Raghuveer from her father and abused by the man for years. This isn’t the first time he has met Radha: he stopped her from taking her own life on a train five years earlier, and, it turns out, her life has only gotten worse from that point onward.
Driven by a sense of righteousness and integrity, Jatil is faced with obstacles at almost every turn, from uncooperative suspects to superiors who are under the sway of local politician Munna Raja (Aditya Srivastava). Munna Raja is also linked to Raghuveer’s family through his daughter, who’s betrothed to Raghuveer’s nephew, Vikram (Nishant Dahiya).
This is director Honey Trehan’s first film, which is impressive given how compelling it is for most of its runtime. Screenwriter Smita Singh (Sacred Games) crafts a twisty yarn where almost all characters are connected to each other. Nawazuddin is as compelling as a police officer as he has been in his more famous gangster roles, playing the man as someone who has a chip on his shoulder and is steadfast in his beliefs. Radhika Apte is also memorable as Radha, portraying a woman who still clings on to her last shreds of dignity despite a lifetime of bad fortune. The supporting cast is suitably solid, making it hard to identify who the killer might be until the climax.
Many critics have compared Raat Akeli Hai to Knives Out, on account of the similarity between the films’ premises. While both are murder mysteries and center around complex, dysfunctional families, Knives Out is more stylish and satirical, crafting a smart narrative that lampoons the rich. Raat Akeli Hai is a more earnest, grounded take, with Jatil Yadav being a much more ordinary man than the over the top Benoit Blanc.
That’s not to say Raat Akeli Hai doesn’t have its share of dramatic moments. Jatil is drawn towards Radha from the moment he sets his eyes on her, and while he is never head over heels in love with her, the attraction is always there. When he makes a move on Radha, she declines, saying that her heart is rusted. But he’s there with her, at the end of the film, when she’s moving away to start a new life. She searches for him on the train and finds him, water bottle in hand. The film leaves them caught in an unspoken moment, their gazes lingering on each other.
Raat Akeli Hai is, perhaps, the strongest Netflix original Bollywood movie yet.
It earns its runtime of two and a half hours, telling a complete, compelling story. It’s not without flaws- for instance, Radha could have been given more agency- but it’s an impressive achievement as a debut feature. Let’s hope Netflix can continue to deliver similar quality with future Indian content.