The Night Manager Review: Aditya Roy Kapur-Anil Kapoor's Series is a Fairly Faithful Adaptation That Sets the Stage For the Big Booms Ahead (LatestLY Exclusive)

The Night Manager Review: Let me first start with something that annoyed me quite a lot with the Disney+ Hotstar's remake. Which is, the number of times the show has to remind me of its name, as if it thinks we are so engrossed in the proceedings that we might confused it for Made in Heaven maybe. I mean, I get it that Aditya Roy Kapur is 'The Night Manager', the supervisor who looks after the guests of the hotel during night shifts. But why the persistent need to keep calling him that nearly every scene? Why can't you just call him Hotel manager or something? Might have a better scope for him in the marriage market. The Night Manager: Aditya Roy Kapur Surprises Guests as He Turns Night Manager For a Posh Mumbai Hotel.

Okay, now that I am done away with my one big grouse, let me say I did enjoy this remake of the acclaimed British series by the same name (also based on a novel by the same name), starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Elizabeth Debicki. Hiddleston even gets a Easter Egg nod here, when a character's dog is called 'Loki', his character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In his place though, we have Shantanu Sen Gupta (Aditya Roy Kapur), who is also called Shaan, when people are tired of calling him 'Night Manager'.

A former Indian Navy officer, Shantanu was working as the 'Night Manager' (curse, now I am doing it) at a prestige hotel in Bangladesh during the 2017 anti-Rohingya protests when he first gets mixed with the dirty business of Shailendra 'Shelly' Rungta (Anil Kapoor). Shailendra is a billionaire businessman who secretly supplies arms to various parts of the world. The first episode sees a deviation from the original series, where instead of falling for the troubled moll of a dangerous playboy, Shantanu is on a platonic mission to rescue the underage bride of a high-roller criminal. Some Spoilers ahead, but like with the original, Shantanu fails to do so, resulting in the grisly death of the girl.

Although here's something I didn't understand. In the original series, the woman was enticed to return to the hotel where she is later killed, but here for some reason, the girl is abducted from her hiding place and brought to the hotel before she is killed. I hope that there is an explanation somewhere ahead in the series - the first part of The Night Manager only has four episodes with the rest coming in June - why this is done so, otherwise this is a very odd way of terminating a witness.

Anyway, Shantanu, who is traumatised by her death, moves location to Shimla, where he works, yes, you guessed it right, as the 'Night Manager'. It's here where he once again meets Shailendra, this time in person, along with his very young girlfriend, the alluring Kaveri (Sobhita Dhulipala) and his trusted entourage include, the gay and perennially suspicious Brij (a fantastic Saswata Chatterjee). Shantanu is coerced by RAW officer Lipika (Tillotama Shome), who is single-mindedly determined to expose Shailendra's arms activity, to turn mole for him, and to exorcise the ghosts of his mind, he agrees. And so the action shifts from Shimla to Sri Lanka, as Shantanu goes to any lengths to get Shailendra's attention and earn his trust.

Watch the Trailer of The Night Manager:

The premise of The Night Manager hardly has anything new to say if you look at it on surface level. From Hollywood films like Donnie Brasco to desi fare like New York and Raazi, we have had watched stuff where a troubled protagonist is coaxed by a government official to infiltrate the inner circle of a powerful mob boss or criminal, who then gets personally involved, all the while there is one person who is way too suspicious of them. So when it comes to cancelling such tropes, The Night Manager hardly makes any kind of breakthroughs.

Still, it is hard not to feel invested in the proceedings, because even within its contrite settings, there are a few terse sequences being provided (Sam CS's score is quite an asset here). The fish market scene where Shantanu tries to pass off information to his handler without getting caught is one such example. Even though the proceedings breed in a lot of familiarity, I didn't feel the need to focus my attention away from what's happening on the screen. Of course, the first four episodes comes across as an engrossing setup for the bigger booms that the series plans to bring ahead, though going by the very spoiler-ish teaser attached to the fourth episode, the predictable tone is hardly discarded there.

The cast also helps in keeping you well-invested. A suave-looking Aditya Roy Kapur finds his errr... limited range used pretty well here to mask the duplicity of his character and the actor does fine job here. Interesting to note here that earlier reports had Hrithik Roshan doing the same role before he walked out and Aditya later stepped in. While that first choice could have brought in a different dexterity to the role, at least the women can have their fill of eye-candy getting Aditya shirtless in quite a few scenes. The Night Manager: Akashdeep Sabir Gets Candid About His Role and Shares His Equation With Anil Kapoor In The Web Series.

Anil Kapoor brings enough calculative menace to his antagonist character, though the full potential of what he can do will only be unlocked in the next set of episodes. Sobhita Dhulipala is fantastic as the villain's seductive, uninhibited arm-candy who has her own mysterious secret to hide. Loved the scene where after Shantanu walks on her naked and crying and later apologises to her, only for her to tell him that she doesn't care him seeing her in the buff, but she minds him seeing her vulnerable. The incredible Tillotama Shome is always a delight to watch on screen, and The Night Manager reiterates why we need to see more of her. And so is Saswata Chatterjee as the boorish but loyal Brij, whose scenes with Aditya always have this edge.

Final Thoughts

While bigger twists and turns are yet to come for the series, the first part of The Night Manager works decently enough as a faithful thrilling adaptation with good performances. The Night Manager is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 17, 2023 09:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).