Raat Akeli Hai
Ratings: 4.4/5
Director: Honey Trehan
Producers: Abhishek Chaubey, Ronnie Screwvala
Genre: Mystery/ Crime Drama
Release Date: 31st July 2020
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Star Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Shweta Tripathi, Aditya Srivastava, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Gyanendra Tripathi, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Nitesh Kumar, Nishant Dahiya, Padmavati Rao, Ila Arun, Swanand Kirkire, Shree Dhar Dubey, Nitesh Kumar, Khalid Tyabji, Riya Shukla
Plot:
The film follows a small-town cop who is summoned to investigate the death of a politician which gets complicated by the victim's secretive family and his own conflicted heart.
The story is set in a small town in Uttar Pradesh. Someone murders patriarch Raghuveer Yadav on the night of his wedding. Jatil Yadav played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is summoned to the scene of the crime, and immediately announces that each member of Raghuveer’s clan living in his haveli is the suspect.
Review:
The movie doesn’t wait for a pivotal moment to show blood!
The movie begins with a pair of murders on the highway. A lorry came and hit a car. A woman came out of the wrecked car; the driver of the lorry cut her throat and killed her. The driver of the vehicle was also killed on the spot. Five years have passed! There is another murder- Raghuveer Singh, a prominent man from Kanpur was killed on the night of his second marriage.
The audience will relate to many other references related to the movie’s storyline. Agatha Christie's Murder Mystery comes to mind when watching the film. Victims and suspects are all in sight, search formulas are also arranged. But as the story unfolds, the suspects change.
Another obvious reference is the concept of 'Locked Room Mystery'. Although the investigation of the murder is the preoccupation of the film, keeping the murder at the center, the director has woven a beautiful web of patriarchy, violence, and hatred around him. The tension in the relationship takes the picture further than the murder mystery. Complexity is not just in the psyche of the main character in this film but in the whole plot. Even more complicated psychology is centered around the murder.
Cinematography is also commendable. The play of light and shadow throughout the film is remarkable. The murder scene is also memorable. In the light of the street lights, two bodies are emerging in the shell of a dark lorry. As soon as the turn of the path turns, it is merging again in the pitch darkness of the night. Highways, alleys, and roads of Uttar Pradesh have also been used beautifully in the film.
For a genre like this, the film has made complete justice to it.
