The Night Manager web series Review: What would any viewer expect from a web series in the spy genre? An intriguing spy thriller story, fast-paced action scenes, and grisly villains give a nightmare to the spy story lover. The Disney + Hotstar series “The Night Manager was aired on February 17th after creating a strong buzz in its favour. The Hindi remake of the British television series Night Manager, however, failed to live up to expectations.
Another remake goes down the drain
With Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapoor in the lead roles, “The Night Manager” is based on the British series of the same name. The British series starred Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston in the lead roles and created a strong buzz and success, leading to this Hindi remake. But the fact is that the British series was itself based on the book The Night Manager, written by John le Carré and published in 1993.
Also read: Dear Mr. Vijay Sethupathi thank you for acting in Hindi film
The Indian series traces the manhunt for a dreaded arms dealer named Shailendra Rungta, aka Shelly, who is played by Anil Kapoor in his typical acting style. The role has the bare minimum to offer in terms of freshness or style in depicting the villainous character. To be honest, Rinku Atwal in the “Undekhi” webseries (as portrayed by Surya Sharma) looked more dangerous than mafia arms lord Shelly.
The Night Manager web series Review: Horrible casting
Tillotama Shome, in the role of Lipika Saikia Rao, fails to shine as the agent calling the shots against Shelly. I know it’s too much to expect if we compare that role to any of the agent roles in recent web series, such as KK Menon’s Himmat Singh or Manoj Bajpayee’s Shrikant. Lipika hardly shines in any of the four episodes, with the market shopping scene being the only one with any semblance of a good performance.
The only one that seems to have impressed in this is Bob Biswas’s famed Shashwat Chatterjee; otherwise, it is a below-average series. The cynical character portraying the role of a gay person seems to add a slight layer of engagement among the audiences.
Also read: Everyone does remake but only Ajay Devgn’s remakes work
The decision to release a half-baked series is the worst and is a crime against the viewers. It would have been Jhakas if the directors had not either misused or held Shelly Rungta back for the next half of the series or roped in a new actor, giving birth to a new villainous template, someone like Atawals.
Having said that, it remains to be seen whether Anil Kapoor will wow us with his “Jhakaas” acting in the second half or whether it will be as average or ignorable as the first half.
Support TFI:
Support us to strengthen the ‘Right’ ideology of cultural nationalism by purchasing the best quality garments from TFI-STORE.COM
