Franchises are the flavour of the season, and Honey Trehan’s Raat Akeli Hai remains a highly specific one. Once again, a murder mystery is investigated by the no-nonsense, middle-class cop Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), with the victims being members of a powerful family in Uttar Pradesh – the Bansals. The Knives Out template is reworked through a bunch of crazy, rich Indian issues and layered with an exterior coating of capitalism in Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders.
Like its predecessor, this Netflix Original places the wealth of its victims front and centre. Like any powerful family, the Bansals have their share of secrets. The background of certain fishy financial dealings conveniently points our suspicion in one direction. Meera (Chitrangada Singh), the public face of the media empire, is still reeling from the recent death of her young son due to a lung condition. The film begins shakily with an odd incident involving a crow attack and the mysterious death of birds inside the family compound. Soon after, we are introduced to a gallery of suspects, which includes Meera’s drug-addicted nephew Aarav and the family’s cryptic spiritual guide, Guru Maa (Deepti Naval).
Things fall into place after a massacre at the Bansal mansion, which leaves just three survivors. Meera names Aarav as the culprit, but the film quickly muddies the waters. Whoever is responsible, whether family, aide, or beneficiary, is driven by a motive far less obvious than it initially appears.
Not very far into its narrative, Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders sets up a large, complicated premise. The setup is never as clever as the film thinks it is, but the writing is serviceable and engaging. Notably on the technical front, it is editor Tanya Chhabria’s work, largely traditional for the genre, that guides the film steadily towards a satisfying finale.
Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders leads us to a final reveal that is convoluted but coherent. It leaves behind the sense that Trehan’s screenplay occasionally overindulges in misdirection when restraint might have served it better. The film’s critique of capitalism treads safe territory, but it lands with reasonable impact.
This time around, the film spends less time in Jatil’s personal space, a decision I found mildly disappointing. The warmth brought in by his mother, Sarita Kumari (Ila Arun), and his love interest (Radhika Apte) is limited. The refreshing addition here is the bizarrely named Malayali forensic expert Dr Rosie Panicker, played by Revathy with energy and clarity. Alongside Siddiqui, the duo forms a solid investigative team, and the sequence where she reconstructs the murders stands out as the film’s finest stretch.
Siddiqui is more comfortable as the cop this time, delivering a controlled, unflashy performance in his familiar style. Yet the deliberate stripping away of theatrics raises a larger question: Does Jatil Yadav have enough stamina to sustain a franchise? Akhilendra Mishra’s jealous cop routine falls flat due to its one-note nature, while Rajat Kapoor is dependable as DGP Varma. Deepti Naval and Sanjay Kapoor are particularly amusing in roles we do not usually associate them with. Naval, as a godwoman with an irritating way to speak in riddles, emerges as one of the film’s most interesting characters. Priyanka Setia is excellent as a fiery lawyer who becomes instrumental in leading Jatil towards understanding the murderer’s intent.
ALSO READ: ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ review – Untangles family secrets in a chilling murder mystery
It has been a while since Chitrangada Singh received a role with this much narrative weight, and she delivers intrigue with restraint. Given the way Meera Bansal is written, the character could have gone either way, but Singh ensures the ambiguity remains intact. We are never quite certain of her moral position, which ultimately strengthens the film’s whodunit mechanics.
Trehan’s commitment to specificity is admirable, even as it makes the franchise ambitions feel risky. How many wealthy families can be massacred before the formula begins to strain credibility, and how many such cases can conveniently land in Jatil’s lap? Still, Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders remains thematically sincere, although not especially daring. Somehow, by the end, I felt little sympathy for the victims. Instead, I found myself craving a future where coffee-loving Dr Panicker and Sarita Kumari strike up an unexpected bond. Whether Jatil’s investigations can retain my interest beyond this chapter remains to be seen.
VERDICT: ★★★ 1/2
Raat Akeli Hai – The Bansal Murders is now streaming on Netflix.
