The Night Manager Review: Aditya Roy Kapur, Saswata Chatterjee and Tillotama Shome steal the show

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By Shweta Parande

If you have seen The Night Manager (2016) original BBC television series on Disney+ Hotstar, you will have high expectations from the Indian version of The Night Manager – Season 1 that has just been released on the streaming platform. Although the international one had mixed reviews, the high production values, direction by Academy-Award-winning Susanne Bier and the impeccable acting by Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander makes it a worthwhile watch. Hiddleston and Laurie, the two male leads, also served as executive producers of the series. Does the Indian version fare well?

We went in for the screening with less expectations from the desi version but were pleasantly surprised to see it has been remade to the local sensibilities well and without overdoing it. The Night Manager is based on a novel by John Le Carre of the same name. Let’s see what the Indian version showcases.

Plot

The web series opens with Aditya Roy Kapur as Shaan Sengupta, working as a night manager at The White Flower hotel in Bangladesh. It is revealed that he is a former Indian navy officer and that explains his sharp senses in noticing something is amiss when a 14-year-old Indian Muslim girl Safina (Arista Mehta) at the hotel comes asking for help. She has been illegally married to a high-profile (criminal) man Fakhruddin ‘Freddie’ Rahman (Resh Lamba), who is also one of the investors of the hotel.

The girl wants to be sent back to India and Shaan comes to her rescue, but fate has different plans. Safina finds out that Freddie is just a small part of a bigger game that involves weapons smuggling being carried out by Indian businessman Shailendra “Shelly” Rungta (Anil Kapoor). She runs away, with Freddie on her trail. In trying to help Safina, Shaan is put on the spy job by RAW officer Lipika Saikia Rao (Tillotama Shome) to help catch Shelly.

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But a shocking turn of events takes place. Shaken to the core by this experience, Shaan withdraws and is later seen working quietly at a hotel in Shimla, until Shelly lands up there with his wife Kaveri aka K (Sobhita Dhulipala) and trusted chief executive officer Brij Pal (Saswata Chatterjee). Upon contacting Lipika again, who has been demoted after the last disaster, Shaan is again convinced by her to help her nab Shelly by being a part of his clan. Lipika is aided by her colleague Danish Khan (Joy Sengupta) to carry out the “unofficial” undercover operation in Sri Lanka.

What transpires next and what Shaan is able to find out about Shelly forms the content of the rest of the episodes in the four-episode first season of The Night Manager. Towards the end, Shaan is able to win the trust of Shelly and his child Taha Rungta (Shrenik Arora), and the romantic attention of his wife K, who is herself playing a double game with her husband.

Brij and Shelly’s friend and aide Jaiveer “Jayu” Singh (Ravi Behl) are losing it due to their mangled personal lives, and Shaan is offered the top job of CEO.

Will Shaan remain an honest ex-navy officer, hotel night manager and now spy, or will he give in to the world of crime and millions of illegal money? That will be seen in the second season of The Night Manager, out June 2023.

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Performances

Aditya Roy Kapur looks handsome and shines in the lead role, and this could be one of his best performances. We will see more villainous shades to it in the second season! Anil Kapoor, Ravi Behl and Sobhita Dhulipala have underplayed in the first season – we guess according to their character graph. Their best is yet to come. So, in the first instalment of the Indian The Night Manager, it is Saswata Chatterjee and Tillotama Shome who truly steal the show with their natural and nuanced performance. It cannot be compared to Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman’s superb acting in the original, but Saswata and Tillotama are actors par excellence and have made the part their own.

Ravi Behl, Anil Kapoor and Saswata Chatterjee in The Night Manager

Directed by Sandeep Modi and Priyanka Ghose, The Night Manager has lavish locations, hotels and resorts. It has been shot in the Indian cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Shimla and Jaisalmer, and international locations in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Middle East to add authenticity to the proceedings.

Verdict

The Night Manager Indian remake offers a thrilling ride. Definitely worth a watch! Just don’t compare it with the original, which is a notch higher in every department. Enjoy the Hindi version on its own.