The Night Manager, the latest Disney Plus Hotstar series- a remake of the British series of the same name- feels a tad bit off-putting, considering how they split the story into two parts. The four-episode series will have its part 2/ season 2 released in June.
It feels like watching a thriller in a theater, only the projector guy decided not to show the second half and sent you home unsatiated instead.
Created by Sandeep Modi, The Night Manager starts off well but unfortunately doesn’t get to that high point where one would get excited about the second season.
What’s It About:
An ex-defense officer Shaan Sengupta now works as a night manager in a five-star hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Life brings another operation to him as a teenage girl asks for his help to save her. The episode leads to him getting his hands on a big syndicate. A turn of events triggers Shaan to get back to being an undercover officer as he now aims to take down the bad guy.
What Works:
Naturally the biggest question that lurks around the show is whether it is different from its original or not. While it follows the blueprint of the British show, Shridhar Raghavan’s (Pathaan) adaptation with Sandeep Modi’s assistance manages to give it a fresh feel. The treatment and chronology differ in the Indian version, which aids in the creation of a new world. This is Modi’s second adaptation in the same month after Netflix’s Class and one can see his skillfulness in the art of borrowing things and making them his own.
The Night Manager is smart at the very point it decides to reveal a lot in the first episode but keeps much more under wraps. At the core of it, the show is a thrilling espionage that is about hunting down a white-collared baddie who deals illegal arms to war-torn countries. The writers take a lot of efforts to blend this storyline into the soil in which the show is set in. The writing connects this fictional story to the unfortunate Rohingya genocide that in turn led to unrest in Bangladesh. It takes quite an effort to explain to the viewers what the situation was like. While no character has any connection with the crisis directly, it does serve as a good backdrop for a show.
The first part is more of an introduction that elaborates on the setup. These are an interesting set of characters and the teams do a great job at casting them. A man with no family or anyone to fall back on is out there to take down a syndicate; the big villain is bad but not visibly evil- he is borderline clueless about what’s happening around him because he lives in the bubble that he rules; a RAW agent who is pregnant but that isn’t stopping her from joining the operation, etc. There are enough light moments too to give the viewers a breather.
Performance:
Aditya Roy Kapur has finally managed to find a project that is making him experiment. This is a great casting choice because Aditya’s charm does work in the favour of the narrative in more ways than one. There is a visible mystery in how the character is built and Kapur with his performance keeps it thriving.
Anil Kapoor joins him as Shailly aka Shailendra Rangta and they together make an interesting antagonist–protagonist pair. Anil Kapoor, who sets out to play an out and bad man for the first time doesn’t overdo it at all. Rather the writing makes him underplay the part. Whatever evil you see of him in the first part of season one is on two phone calls. Nothing creates a visible villain out of him once he is in the frame- an interesting way to build an arc and play with it. One can only hope they manage to keep using it well.
Can we take a moment and celebrate the powerhouse of talent called Tillotama Shome? The actor does a role way different from her filmography and aces every single bit of it. She plays a pregnant woman on the job but thankfully that is never made the central point of discussion about her character.
Sobhita Dhulipala has an interesting part at hand that is just a tease in the first part and promises to have much more in the second part. She wears all the wrong clothes on the wrong occasions and that is possibly being used as a trait for her part if I am not reading too much between the lines. Wish the four episodes revealed a bit more about her. She borderline looks like eye candy and adds nothing more to this world right now.
Saswata Chatterjee plays a gay character that is interesting but there is a whole lot of stereotyping and one simply cannot ignore it. While he becomes the bridge between the real world and his bubble for Kapoor, there should have been more research involved in creating him.
What Doesn’t Work:
That the part one chooses to keep a lot stored for the second.
Four episodes are used as an introduction and a tease of what’s to come but this is the first season and a show that is yet to build a fan base for itself.
It is a risky decision and one that deserves a crackling part two if you are making the audience wait. While Anil and Sobhita are great actors respectively, their interpersonal dynamic doesn’t blend in organically as it should.
Lastly, The Night Manager, with its unusual entry point to being an espionage thriller, is definitely an exciting series. But there needs to be more content here to hold your interest. So the best way to watch this series might be to wait till June so that you can have an 8-episode series to watch in one go.