The Night Manager Web Series Review: Bollywood stars are leading this web series. Their characters are well-written and this is what saves The Night Manager. While the tightness of the story is loose in between. The problem is also that when the most exciting turn comes, the talk is over. A long wait ahead comes to you.

If remake films are in a bad shape in Bollywood, it is not that all Indian or original is happening on OTT. The business of Indianizing foreign web series is going on fast here. At the moment everything is new, so something seems fine. But the way the writing on the lines of films is second-rate here too, it is doubtful that this game will be able to last long. 

The Night Manager is a novel by a writer named John Le Carre. In 2016, BBC has made a web series with the same name. Now the Indianization of that series is being streamed on Disney Hotstar. Disney Hotstar is creating content for Hindi and South languages, but its Hindi PR is not working properly, nor is it able to show OTT the right path regarding Hindi media and audience.

How is The Night Manager Web Series?

The Night Manager starts off modestly, but the first episode demands a lot of patience. If you cross this, then the remaining three episodes definitely thrill a bit. But the problem is that there are sudden filmy turns in this story, where the logic is completely missing. The story written in accumulation becomes completely filmy. Sometimes a day is shown neatly and sometimes a jump is made for months in a few minutes. 

The storytelling style of film and web series gets mixed. You do not understand whether the writer is telling the story in the web series or it is a script written for the film. Certainly, the characters are well crafted here, but the story is lax. Directors Sandeep Modi and Priyanka Ghosh have tried their best to make the scenes believable. The thrill of the web series increases gradually. But when the story has reached the most interesting point, then the talk of this season ends.

Now, what next…?

The Night Manager is the story of Shaan Sengupta (Aditya Roy Kapur). He was an officer in the Navy. But after personal failures and disillusionment, he has become a hotel manager. He is the night shift manager of a five-star hotel in Dhaka (Bangladesh). There is no one behind him. 

In the hotel, he meets a 14-year-old girl who has been forcefully married to a rich Bangladeshi. She is his third wife and a victim of physical abuse. The girl asks for help to return to India with pride. But before Shaan can do so, that girl is killed. From here, the entry of international-level criminals takes place in the story. Whose Sargara style is alias Shailendra Rungta (Anil Kapoor). 

For the show, his business is shipping, but he buys and supplies arms illegally all over the world. India’s intelligence agency RAW is keeping an eye on him. Shaan Sengupta along with his friend Lipika Saikia Rao (Tilotma Shome) plans to win Shelly’s trust and trap her in RAW and succeeds in it by the end of four episodes. Now, what next…?

Circular Planning

OTT was liked by the people because here all the episodes of the entire story can be seen in one go. But in order to keep the subscribers hooked, here the OTTs are forcibly pushing the story into two and three seasons. 

When the story catches up in episode four of The Night Manager, only then do you find that the road ahead is closed. Now you have to wait for months. Amidst the weaknesses of The Night Manager’s story and script, it is saved by the performance of the cast. Aditya Roy Kapur and Anil Kapoor are Bollywood stars here. He has played his characters well. 

But the series brings the performances of Chamak Tilottama Shome, Shashwat Chatterjee, and Sobhita Dhulipala. Jagadish Rajpurohit and Bhagavathy Perumal also create a stir when they come. You can watch these four episodes for about a quarter to a quarter of an hour in your free time. If you are ready to wait a long time for the next story after this.

Director: Sandeep Modi and Priyanka Ghosh

Stars: Aditya Roy Kapur, Anil Kapoor, Sobhita Dhulipala, Tilottama Shome, Shashwat Chatterjee, Jagdish Rajpurohit

Rating***