Gajab Raat Review: Manoj Bajpayee’s Thriller Is a Big-Time Misfire

BOTTOM LINE
Manoj Bajpayee’s Thriller Is a Big-Time Misfire

PLATFORM
Netflix

RUNTIME
2 Hours

What Is the Show About?

When a corrupt police officer, Ajay Dixit, encounters an injured, abandoned woman on the road, his plans for a lucrative night unravel. As shady officers demand her custody, Ajay discovers her identity and her links to a high-level conspiracy. Forced to choose between bribes and his conscience, he navigates an overnight investigation.

Performances

This is amongst Manoj Bajpayee‘s most forgettable films. It leaves him with nothing. His verbal diarrhoea is hard to endure and there is no reason to believe why the character he plays, Ajay Dixit, is the face of the film. Several noted names, Divya Dutta, Shraddha Das, Akshay Oberoi, Saqib Saleem and Nushrratt Bharuccha, too are not left with anything substantial to alter the film’s fortunes.

Analysis

For every reasonable project Manoj Bajpayee takes up, from The Family Man to Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai to Gulmohar, there is a balancing act the actor performs with titles like Mrs Serial Killer, Dial 100, Bhaiyya Ji and Inspector Zende, which offer little purpose beyond a fat paycheque. Gajab Raat comfortably joins that list.

The arrangement is obvious. Backed by Neeraj Pandey, the self-proclaimed OTT specialist in thrillers involving uniformed men and white-collar crimes, the project is a viable financial prospect. Even if it is an evidently trashy outing, the collaboration makes sense for all parties involved, except that the viewer’s time is the ultimate collateral damage.

Gajab Raat is an all-nighter about Ajay Dixit, a corrupt cop tasked with overseeing a bruised, unconscious woman thrown from a speeding car. Her identity is a mystery, yet power players keep close tabs on her condition. A minister frets over potential sexual harassment allegations, while the CBI and NIA scramble to wrest control of the case.

Ajay himself is a colourful protagonist, an incorrigible flirt carrying on an affair with an escort, constantly scouting ways to monetise the crisis. The narrative aims to be a high-stakes drama around the negotiations over the woman, but spends far too long establishing a redundant tug-of-war among bureaucrats and governmental agencies.

It takes until the halfway mark just to learn the woman’s identity. And many, many minutes later, when your patience evaporates like the country’s water levels, you finally find out what she was up to and why she was in trouble in the first place. Ajay, naturally, discovers by the end that he is a cop with a conscience after all, arriving at a resolution that benefits the crème de la crème and saves the girl.
A glaring issue throughout is that you never know whom to root for. Ajay alters his views like a chameleon, keeping his true stance hidden until the pre-climax. The CBI and NIA officers are trapped in an endless loop of yapping to their superiors with no respite in sight, all while a sex worker repeatedly checks in to ask the cop if he is coming over for the night.

The entire film could have been a stage play, where characters communicate over calls more than in person. The woman lies on the bed, perennially battling for life, while the men enjoy the nail-biting suspense. It is as if the officers and the bureaucrats are part of a contest about who is more corrupt among them all.

The very soul of the story, the cause that the girl fights for and the laughable sting operation subplot, is hushed up quickly like a formality. There is absolutely no context. The film mistakes the professional identity of the characters for their personality. Is there any paisa-vasool entertainment? No. Is there a serious plot? No. What are you supposed to feel after the film ends? Also, not sure.
Gajab Raat is more ajeeb than gajab. At least bad films leave you with a headache, this one leaves you dumbfounded. Like the professor from 3 Idiots, you are tempted to ask its creators: “Arey, kehna kya chahte ho?”

Music and Other Departments?

There is so much talk in the film that you crave some silence amidst all the mayhem. The background score and the visual aesthetic, dominated by flashy, in-your-face colours, are attempts to give this a quirky, comic-book style touch. However, none of this really helps the proceedings. For its two-hour runtime, there is just a lot of cacophony and pointlessness to tolerate.

Highlights?

Nothing much

Drawbacks?

Weak script, poorly woven conflict

Characters and performances do not leave any impression

Big names wasted

Did I Enjoy It?

Not at all.

Will You Recommend It?

No, by any means.

Gajab Raat Hindi Movie Reviewed by M9 News