Disney+ Hotstar’s espionage thriller series The Night Manager, starring Aditya Roy Kapoor and Anil Kapoor in the lead, is a gripping tale of an ex-Indian Navy officer-turned-hotel manager’s quest to uncover the dark secrets of a multi-millionaire running an arms racket in the guise of a white-collar business. Scripted by Pathaan co-writer Sridhar Raghavan, this Indian version of the British TV series starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Lawrie — and based on the John Le Carre novel of the same name — features Sobhita Dhulipala, Tillotama Shome and Saswata Chatterjee in key roles. Here’s why the first four episodes of the show that dropped on February 17 have us waiting for its second instalment in June.
Intriguing premise
We meet Aditya’s Shaan Sengupta, an ex-Navy lieutenant working at the Orient Pearl in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2017. The basic premise of the novel has been convincingly adapted to the setting of the volatile last phase of the Rohingya refugee crisis which resulted in mass migration to Bangladesh from Myanmar. Here Shaan meets a 14-year-old Lucknow girl seeking help to flee her marriage with a Bangladesh gangster. Shaan contacts RAW agent Lipika Saikia (Tillotama Shome) to give the girl safe passage to India in exchange for incriminating evidence on the gangster’s link to illegal arms deals, headed by shipping tycoon and philanthropist Shailendra Rungta aka Shelly (Anil Kapoor). However, the extraction goes wrong, the girl gets killed, Lipika gets demoted and Shaan retreats to Shimla.
Two years later, still haunted by the girl’s death, Shaan becomes the night manager of a luxurious hotel amid the snow-capped mountains of Shimla where Shelly and his inner circle come to stay as VIP guests. Shaan contacts Lipika and sends her some crucial evidence which ultimately leads to him becoming an unauthorised spy for RAW. He is now tasked with infiltrating Shelly’s family by forging a connection with his young son.
Aditya Roy Kapoor is the soul of the show
Aditya gets under the skin of a mysterious man with a troubled past with ease. He is a ‘lone wolf’ whose quest for anonymity creates an aura of intrigue around him. When we first meet Shaan, he is a disgraced Naval officer trying to start over in the hospitality business. Shaan, who is ‘50 per cent Bengali and 100 per cent Indian’, overcomes his inhibitions to assist a young girl in need. However, her death breaks him, causing him to rebel on a personal level and leading him to a chaotic place.
In the last couple of years, Aditya has tried to break his romantic-boy image with action films such as Malang and Rashtra Kavach Om. In The Night Manager, Aditya is a man with multiple pasts and no past at the same time. He is convincing as a gentle hospitality industry professional as well as a sharp, aggressive ex-soldier who lands punches without breaking into a sweat.
Anil Kapoor’s Shelly is full of flamboyance
Anil Kapoor takes up the role of a middle-aged evil businessman wearing the mask of a saviour. His single malt-drinking, suit-clad Shelly is full of flamboyance. We see him doing philanthropic work to camouflage his actual money-making business — arms dealing. The show doesn’t give any backstory of his rise to power. However, in the fourth and last episode of Chapter 1, Shelly reminds Shaan not to mistake him for a man in an expensive suit.
A still from The Night Manager. Disney+Hotstar
A brilliant supporting cast: Tillotama Shome, Shobhita Dhulipala and Saswata Chatterjee
The series is packed with some fascinating characters played by some of the most talented actors in the country. Sobhita Dhulipala as Kaveri, Shelly’s much younger girlfriend, looks drop-dead gorgeous while hiding a lot of pain. Saswata Chatterjee as Shelly’s childhood friend and right-hand man Brijpal is funny yet dangerous. It is his methodical outlook towards business that makes him what he is. But Brijpal, who is gay, doesn’t try to restrain his sexuality and this becomes the chink in his armour in this high-stakes game of power and manipulation.
Tillotama Shome, as RAW agent Lipika Saikia, is a notch higher. Lipika, who is trying to sniff out the mind behind the arms racket, is up against the biases of the male-dominated investigative agency where corruption is rampant. She is brash and doesn’t think twice before crossing the line in her relentless pursuit of Shelly. Her spunk and unorthodox methods of leading the mission adds a lot of wackiness as well as edginess to the series.
The stunning landscapes elevate the story
The Night Manager jumps locations several times — from the turbulent Dhaka in the opening episode to the luxurious Himalayan mountain retreat in Shimla, and finally the breezy sand and sea of Sri Lanka. The landscapes not only lend a grand canvas to the show, they have deeper connections to the storyline. Dhaka serves as the chaotic setting of the series in the beginning, while the snow-capped mountains of Shimla echo the culmination of Shaan’s traumas. The cold, harsh winter represents the protagonist’s mental state at the time. On the other hand, the stunning coastal landscape of Sri Lanka and the vastness of the ocean represent Shelly’s control and Shaan’s isolation.
