The Night Manager boasts of a gripping story and superb cinematography

Mona

Crime thriller is the most celebrated genre on OTT and joining the bandwagon is The Night Manager. Based on the British series, The Night Manager, which is adapted from the book by the same name. The author, John le Carré, is famous for his espionage novels.

The show-runner Sandeep Modi brings out a slick and spectacular outing that marks the OTT debut for Aditya Roy Kapur. The story follows his character Shaan Sengupta, a night manager at a posh hotel in Dhaka. While helping a guest in trouble, Shaan unwittingly becomes a part of an expose that involves well respected and well connected shipping tycoon Shailendra Rungta (Anil Kapoor).

The story moves from Dhaka to snow-clad Shimla and then to the scenic beaches of Sri Lanka. Unlike most spy thrillers, this one is a straight story sans convoluted twists and turns.

First things first – it is a brilliantly shot series and the production value is super high. It paints a lush, luxurious world inhabited by beautiful, fit and pretty folks. The cinematography by Benjamin Jasper and Anik Ram Verma offers some brilliant shots of luxurious properties spread across the world. The story is engaging that you can enjoy at a comfortable pace. There is no mindless gore or chases here.

Anil Kapoor is an actor worth his name. Over the decades, not only he has maintained his looks, his grasp on the character has stayed strong. A seeming humanitarian, who generously contributes to aid for humanitarian crises, just beneath the veneer, he is the deadly merchant of death. Aditya Roy Kapur offers a fine performance. His brooding past, being rather coerced into a deadly mission, working towards the game with steadfastness get amply reflected in his demeanour. While Sobhita Dhulipala as Rungta’s girlfriend K aka Kaveri gets ample screen space to show her oomph but that restricts her outing to majorly swimming shots and bare-dare scenes, of course artistically executed. The real hero, however, is Tillotama Shome as RAW agent Lipika Saikia Rao. Raw and real, whether she is biting her sandwich or buying fish in Sri Lanka, she holds the story together as a devoted agent not ready to give up in the face of challenges. Saswata Chatterjee as Rungta’s key aide BJ looks menacing. His queer character gets a show, but then he is the only one interested in sleeping around rather than focusing on their dirty business. While the story keeps you interested, it’s only twice or thrice that it really sets your heart racing. With just four episodes out now, the last few minutes give a glance of what awaits – some steamy scenes, more schemes and war shots, due in June.

The Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh that it begins with only offers a nominal setting, it doesn’t delve into refugee crisis. Still with incongruities in screenplay that are rather difficult to overlook, it reflects a real world where war is a lucrative business, the current Russia-Ukraine crisis a testimony of current times where arms lobby reigns supreme.

Streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.