The Night Manager Season 1 Review : Aditya Roy Kapur's restrained performance keeps you hooked in this engaging plot

Story: The espionage thriller follows a hotel night manager and ex-navy guy, Shaan Sengupta, as he infiltrates an influential arms dealer, Shailendra Rungta’s gang, to bring him down.

Review: Adapted from John le Carré’s novel and the British series by the same name, the show’s opening has thrill stamped all over it, with a prisoner escaping from a police van in the rugged snowy terrains and moving to the violent Rohingya protests outside The Oriental Pearl hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The viewers are then introduced to the hotel’s suave night manager, Shaan Sengupta (Aditya Roy Kapur), who calmly troubleshoots and ensures guests’ safety and comfort. After that, a series of edge-of-the-seat events follow — a tormented teenager named Safina trying to escape her older criminal husband, Shaan trying to help her, and turning an Indian RAW agent Lipika Siakia Rao’s (Tilottama Shome) asset to nab a business tycoon-philanthropist, Shailendra Rungta aka Shelly (Anil Kapoor), who runs illegal arms dealing gig across the globe.

National Award winner Sandeep Modi has a tight grip on the narrative, and the show’s first episode will keep you hooked throughout with the engaging storyline and crackerjack treatment. However, in the parts where Shaan enters Shelly’s estate and befriends his son, Taha, to gain his trust, the pace and thrill intermittently take a slight beating. Although never dull, one eagerly waits for things to pick up again. When Shaan goes full throttle to make inroads into Shelly’s gang, the plot becomes more interesting.

The spy thriller is gripping but not without loopholes. Some of the plot points are unconvincing — Shelly quickly takes Shaan into his folds, even though, as the latter describes, he can see into someone’s soul. So his motive for letting Shaan into his inner circle is unclear. And even though Shelly’s estate is no less than a fortress, it doesn’t take too much for Shaan to get access to off-limit areas or how quickly Lipika makes him an asset.

Aditya Roy Kapur is phenomenal as Shaan. His restrained demeanour, and how effortlessly he gets the soldier-meets-night-manager act, striking a perfect balance between the two personas, is laudable. Anil Kapoor seems to underplay the powerful criminal so that the spotlight is on the lead protagonist, but he gets the understated part just right. Saswata Chatterjee as Shelly’s right-hand man Brij Pal, aka BJ, delivers a noteworthy performance. Sobhita Dhulipala plays Shelly’s girlfriend, Kaveri, and her backstory is yet to be revealed, but she is decent in her role.

Part Two of the series will be a three-month wait; from the rushes, it promises high-octane action. Part One is worth catching, even if it gets underwhelming and is predictable in parts. Aditya Roy Kapur makes it a worthwhile watch, and the espionage bits are gritty.