By Neeraj Nanda
RAAT AKELI HAI, Hindi, 150 minutes, 2020; Director Honey Trehan; Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Aditya Srivastava, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Gyanendra Tripathi, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Nitish Kumar; Genre Crime; Subtitles English.
A well made crime drama with all the ingredients of the genre. Police inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) investigates the murder of a high society man on his wedding evening. The secretive family with many strange characters hides more and more as the investigation progresses. In an interesting turn, Jatil Yadav keeps drawn towards Radha (Radhika Apte), the murdered man’s young mistress. The bachelor cop’s duty and love make the intricate investigation tough in the search for the truth.
Seema Singh’s (Sacred Games) screenplay has a touch of Perry Mason. Nawazuddin Siddiqui gives a brilliant performance. The scenes where he broods when his mother talks about him being unmarried, give a realistic flavor to the movie. Radhika Apte gives a regal performance. Honey Trehan has said this movie is about patriarchy which is a curse. In fact, it is much more than that. A worth seeing movie. Well done, Raat Akeli Hai team.
I give this movie four out of five stars.
