In March, Disney+ expanded its offerings to include Indian content, including movies and TV series. These offerings were in several Indian languages and included sub-titles.
One of the big drawcards on the slate of releases was “The Night Manager”. If the title appears familiar, it is because it is inspired by the British series of the same name.
Of course, the writers added a bit of tamasha (chaos/drama) by including a childbride twist to the storyline about taking down Shailendra “Shelly” Runga (Anil Kapoor), an influential arms dealer operating as a legit businessman.
The series opens with Shantanu “Shaan” Sengupta (Aditya Roy Kapur), a former Indian Navy lieutenant working as the night manager at a five-star hotel in Dhaka.
His life is thrown in disarray when he meets Safina Kidwai (Arista Mehta), a feisty 14-year-old wanting to leave her husband, Freddie Rehman (Resh Lamba), a majority share owner of the hotel who has some questionable business dealings.
At first, Shaan decides not to involve himself in the situation. But he is unable to turn a blind eye when she provides evidence of a meeting between her husband and Shelly. In the video, the two discuss buying and smuggling illegal weapons to Bangladesh.
And, Safina takes pictures of the paper trail too.
Spotting the grave threat, Shaan approaches Vikram Bhagwat, a friend of his at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
The information is escalated to Lipika Saikia Rao (Tillotama Shome), a RAW officer from Delhi who is in charge of Bangladesh. RAW is India’s foreign intelligence agency.
She is over the moon to finally get the evidence needed to take down Shelly but her superior, Mittal (Vikram Kapadia), who also goes by Indradhanush, doesn’t share her feelings.
Although Lipika’s superior Danish Khan (Joy Sengupta) shares her hunger to make Shelly atone for his crimes, their efforts are stymied by Mittal, who is on Shelly’s payroll.
Meanwhile, Freddie learns of Safina’s betrayal and is ordered to kill her. But before he can get to her, Shaan helps her escape to safety.
Sadly, the leaks in RAW lead Shelly’s henchmen to Safina’s whereabouts and she is thrown to her death. This injustice spurs Shaan to exact revenge and, as such, he agrees to be Lipika’s informant by getting close to Shelly.
This means, finding another job in Shimla. Their plan – an elaborate one at that – involves Shaan doing drugs, stealing, quitting his job, getting arrested and going on the run.
Shaan doesn’t veer from the goal, despite many setbacks along the way. And Lipika is like a dog with a bone as well.
They two get lucky when their ruse of a fake kidnapping of Shelly’s son, Taha, who is “saved” by Shaan.
The ploy goes pear-shaped when Shaan is beaten to a pulp but it is a blessing in disguise. Shelly takes pity on him and, given that he is indebted to the man who saves his son, he takes him in and helps him recover in the lion’s den, so to speak, in Sri Lanka.
While Shelly’s right-hand Brij Pal (aka BJ), played by Saswata Chatterjee, smells a rat, Shelly doesn’t heed his warnings.
The thriller is underpinned by a romance, too, with Shaan falling for Kaveri Dixit (Sobhita Dulipala), who is Shelly’s drop-dead gorgeous model girlfriend.
The casting for “The Night Manager” is commendable. Every actor brings something to the table. Kapur is mesmerising. Aside from being easy on the eye, his juggling act of being charming, deceptive and deadly is brilliantly executed.
Kapoor wears his power on his sleeve. He doesn’t suffer fools easily. He is loyal to friends and lethal to foes.
He plays his character in a cool, calm and collected manner. Well, that is until the wheels start coming off and he realises how deep the lies run.
Dulipala is cast as a distraction. But that doesn’t mean that she has a trivial role. Her character is layered, conflicted by her past and torn between two men. She plays her part with finesse.
Shome is a marvel to watch as an unstoppable force of nature. Not one to cower in the face of adversity, she plays her character with tremendous gusto.
She’s one of the good guys and she is unrelenting in her fight for justice, even if it costs her her job.
Honestly, I watched “The Night Manager”, thinking it was going to be your typical Bollywood offering by dazzling with the aesthetics and not delivering on the drama.
But it was anything but predictable. The cat-and-mouse chase leaves streamers on tenterhooks.
The script is ingeniously penned, with a minefield of red herrings thrown in for good measure. The series tackles patriotism, greed, deception, love and family.
“The Night Manager” is bolstered by solid performances, a compelling story and deft direction. I was pleasantly surprised, you would be, too!
∎ “The Night Manager” is streaming on Disney+.