‘Rautu Ka Raaz’ film evaluate: Nawazuddin Siddiqui does the heavy lifting on this delicate homicide thriller

Rajesh Kumar and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a nonetheless from ‘Rautu Ka Raaz’

He’s sharp however bizarre. These are the 2 adjectives that the residents of Rautu ki Beli, a quiet village in Tehri Garhwal, use to explain Deepak Negi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). A police inspector struggling to interrupt the shackles of non-public trauma, a often sleepless but canny Negi wakes up sooner or later to seek out {that a} homicide has damaged the tranquillity of his serene territory.

Sangeeta (Narayani Shastri), the warden of a faculty for the blind, has been discovered lifeless in her room. The employees of the varsity insists it’s a pure loss of life. Negi’s staff of laggards led by a well-meaning Dimri (Rajesh Kumar) don’t appear wanting to stretch themselves. However, the autopsy report and the instinct of Negi say there’s something uncommon about Sangeeta’s demise. As the private {and professional} intertwine, Negi sheds the inertia round him to have a crack on the homicide thriller.

The scene of the crime is dotted with purple herrings, loads of witnesses, and a number of other backstories the place characters cross one another’s paths. The needle of suspicion strikes in the direction of the varsity’s founder Kesari (Atul Tiwari) however just like the roads on the hills, the investigation both meanders or meets lifeless ends. Not one to mince phrases or buckle beneath political or departmental strain, Negi pursues the case with dogged willpower.

Nevertheless, the adjectives that the villagers use to explain Negi additionally outline the storytelling, at instances. Author and director Anand Surapur (The Fakir of Venice) and co-writer Shariq Patel have crafted a homicide thriller that raises hopes with its imaginative and prescient however underperforms with regards to execution. It jogs my memory of the straightforward Doordarshan days when tales of crime weren’t at all times a bloody mess and carried a social message. They seemed languid however made a pointy touch upon society because the layers of the case unraveled.

Rautu Ka Raaz guarantees an analogous expertise. An attention-grabbing distinction to the fast-paced, urbane homicide mysteries that dot the streaming house, the police procedural is laced with humour emanating from social stereotypes folks in small cities stay with. The issue is that the aim of inexperienced lighting the topic turns into slightly too apparent. Just a few extra drafts and slightly extra maintain over the plot factors would have taken away the sense of superficiality and instruction that creeps into the simplicity of the setting.

The backstory of Negi by no means actually touches you or will get enmeshed with the narrative. Kesari and his predilections stay undercooked and the probabilities across the offbeat crime scene, a faculty for the blind, are extra reductive than gripping. Among the many supporting solid, Rajesh Kumar stands out because the lumbering Dimri. In a movie headlined by Nawazuddin, Rajesh exhibits the ability of much less is extra.

Like a few of his current movies, Nawazuddin is central to the story and has been tasked with doing the heavy lifting with out the required padding supplied by a perceptive director. He’s environment friendly however even versatile actors should be restrained. Right here it appears, like Negi, Nawaz turned up for work on some days with out sprucing the actor in him. For probably the most half, he’s simply being Nawaz.

Rautu Ka Raaz is streaming on Zee5