Review of Gajab Raat (Netflix)

Neeraj Pandey delivers yet another high-stakes thriller with Gajab Raat, proving that his trademark thrill-seeking formula remains unbroken even when he steps back from the director's chair.

Known for crafting definitive espionage and crime thrillers like A Wednesday, Baby, Special 26, and Naam Shabana, Pandey takes a back seat as writer-producer, handing the directorial reins over to acclaimed screenwriter Ritesh Shah (Pink, Airlift, Kahaani and Raid).   Shah transitions effortlessly to the helm, maintaining the breathless pacing and structural tension that fans of the genre crave

The narrative kicks off when Sub-Inspector Ajay (played by Manoj Bajpai), a razor-sharp, procedure-oriented officer with a flexible moral compass, raids a hotel simply because the owner failed to deliver the routine bribe (hafta) to the station in-charge (Rajiv Gupta).    The plot takes a dramatic turn when a female journalist, brutally assaulted by CBI officer (Akshay Oberoi), engaged by a power broker, escapes her captor by jumping out of his moving vehicle.   Deployed to the scene as a public relations stunt by his superiors to showcase the department's quick response time, Ajay finds himself at the centre of a media storm. Before he can secure the area, human rights activist Neha Prabhu arrives, demanding transparency and threatening to expose any police mishandling of the case or compromise.  What starts as a routine inconvenience for Ajay—who initially wanted nothing more than to drop the victim off at a hospital and sneak away to a romantic rendezvous—quickly escalates into a multi-layered conspiracy.

The Conflict & The Collusion

When the abusive CBI officer arrives at the hospital demanding the case to be handed over to him, Ajay’s sharp instincts kick in.  Ajay's corrupt nature is balanced by his sheer brilliance and an uncanny ability to navigate the complex labyrinth of police and bureaucracy. Instead of yielding, he convinces his DCP to keep the investigation under Delhi Police jurisdiction to reap the professional glory. However, Ajay's true motivation remains financial.

The stakes skyrocket when the CBI officer offers Ajay a staggering ₹5 crore bounty to bump off the journalist battling for life in the hospital.   While the corrupt cop initially accepts the contract, a visceral shift occurs within him after interacting with the victim’s family and knowing about her unyielding passion for honest journalism. Choosing redemption over a payday, Ajay transforms into a one-man army, covertly shifting the journalist to a hidden wing of the hospital to protect her life.

 

The web of corruption widens rapidly as a National Investigation Agency (NIA) operative enters the fray to seize control of the case. Soon, the SI, the right-wing activist, and the NIA officer are all offered massive financial incentives to ensure the journalist never wakes up again.

The Ultimate Reveal

At its core, the investigation unearths a sinister nexus involving a billion-dollar pharmaceutical cartel. The journalist’s undercover sting operation was on the verge of exposing how this syndicate artificially manufactured vaccine demands, manipulated supply chains, and weaponised public hysteria through fake health scares to maximise corporate profits.

A Gritty Exposé on Institutional Decay

Neeraj Pandey’s latest cinematic offering delivers a bruising, unvarnished look at the systemic rot plaguing contemporary society. The narrative pulls no punches, sketching a grim portrait of institutional corruption where every cog in the machinery—from a local Sub-Inspector and his commanding officer to CBI and NIA operatives, high-ranking politicians, and wealthy entrepreneurs—is driven solely by avarice.

In signature Neeraj Pandey style, the film completely strips away traditional commercial tropes. There are no distracting song-and-dance sequences; instead, the plot relies on a singular, high-stakes action set-piece to punctuate its realism. What remains is a taut, gripping narrative anchored by an exceptional cast.

Manoj Bajpayee’s Masterclass Performance

At the center of this stellar ensemble is Manoj Bajpayee, who delivers a powerhouse performance. Bajpayee masterfully navigates the complexities of his character, embodying shades of cunning, shrewdness, and casual flirtation. In a pivotal narrative shift, his character undergoes a rare, conscience-driven awakening, attempting to persuade his superiors to spare a victim while pragmatically suggesting they resume their illicit gains in future dealings.

The ensemble cast delivers solid performances across the board, with Rajiv Gupta’s portrayal of the SHO and Kiku Sharda as a hotelier providing the necessary comic relief. Meanwhile, Vivek Oberoi puts forward a sharp performance as the CBI officer, complemented effectively by Saleem’s commanding role as the NIA operative and Shraddha Das’s nuanced depiction of a right-wing activist.

The medical fraternity is up in arms over Sunny Deol's upcoming action-thriller, Suryaa: Ant Se Aarambh Tak, as the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has formally approached the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) seeking an urgent review or outright ban. The doctors' body alleges that the film’s newly released teaser generalises systemic corruption within the healthcare sector and normalises dangerous public violence against medical professionals by framing vigilante assaults as heroic

However, public sentiment surrounding the film presents a stark counter-narrative, viewing the cinematic backlash as a long-overdue reality check for a heavily commercialised healthcare apparatus. For decades, Indian cinema has consistently vilified politicians, law enforcement, and bureaucrats as intrinsically corrupt without triggering widespread unrest or boycotts. Defending the film's creative liberty, supporters argue that the healthcare industry—recently under fire following government disclosures revealing private hospital markups of up to 700% on critical cancer drugs is not above public scrutiny and deserves to have a mirror held up to its practices.

A must-watch.  Don’t miss

S. Prabhakar

24.10.26

 

Review of Jailer 2

By S. Prabhakar

Rajini’s Jailer-2, the sequel to Jailer, which was a super hit movie, was released across India in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.    Like any other movie of Rajni movies, there is a huge hype and high expectations around its release and once again Rajini has not disappointed his fans.   First things first, Jailer 2 is an entertaining and engaging movie, slightly better than Jailer.   

 

The Murthy episode is very well written, and the trio of Rajini, Yogi and Namo Narayana as Murthy are able to generate a lot of comic scenes which are thoroughly enjoyable.   Apart from comedy, only one villain is searching for the person who has killed the gangster Verma and taken away three containers of smuggled statues in part 1.  Post-interval, the movie moves to a different zone with a bunch of villains viz., Suriya and his brother, Mithun, and Vidya Balan joining the hunt for Rajini and the stolen containers and it is a cat-and-mouse game trying to outwit each other.    Despite so many stars packed post-interval, the proceedings become a bit slow. 

 

It's an out-and-out Rajini movie, full of elevations, swag and style in large doses.   For a change, Rajini did restrained and composed acting.   Thankfully, he didn’t do most of the action scenes himself and left it to his assistants and top stars in cameo roles.  Full marks for Namo Naraya, who was brilliant, ably supported by seasoned Yogi Babu.   SJ Surya and the eccentric villain did well.   There are a host of cameos: Mohan Lal, Shiva Rajkumar, Jackie, Hrithik, and Vijay Sethupathi, but sadly Hrithik is the only one who looked terrific, and all others are there in just two frames.   I really would have liked Hrithik doing action scenes rather than leaving it to a bunch of his girl assistants. 

 

Nelson direction was good and Anirudh's music brilliant; two songs were super hits and BGS too is very good.   The make-up man did a horrible job on Rajini, who looked tired, dusky, with badly broken lips

 

The Rajini magic

 

 It is very difficult to understand what really works for Rajinikanth, that too for that long.  He has been working as a leading actor for over 53 years and not showing any signs of slowing down even at 75 years.   After crossing 55 to 60 years all the leading stars find it to difficult to carry a movie on their shoulders and turn character actors. 

 

Surprisingly, after crossing 50 years, Rajini has become more dependable and is churning out super hits film after film.   It all started with Basha, and thereafter Chandramukhi, Shivaji, Robo 1 and 2, Jailer, Colie, all were super hits.  He commands so much of respect not only in Tamil but also in other industries and there is hardly any actor who is not willing to work with him in full-fledged roles or even a small cameo.   Every film of Rajini has at least 4-5 cameo by stars from Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi industries.   The way Rajini is going, he may work up to 90 years like Clint Eastwood. 

 

I give 3.5/5 rating and recommend to those who enjoy mass masala commercials.

 

s. prabhakar

19.10.26

 

Nana Patekar, an actor of his own kind, pulls down the curtains

by 

S. Prabhakar

Today, we all woke up to the sad news that Nana Patekar, the versatile actor with unique talent and his own style, has pulled down the curtains and left the Centre Stage once and for all.   An extremely gifted and rare species of an actor who did not follow the Bollywood stereotyping to climb the ladder of success.  Though he was in the industry for over 40 years, he maintained his unique style and status and gave powerful performances.   Whether it was solo movies or a multi-starrer, he stole the show and overshadowed the co-actors, as long as he was on the screen. He acted predominantly in Hindi and Marathi and won many awards, including three national awards and 6 Filmfare awards.   He was conferred with Padma Shri by the Government of India.

 

Nana was never typical hero material and never attempted to be one, running around the trees with the heroines or doing outrageous and unrealistic action scenes, which are considered to be an essential ingredient to be successful in Bollywood.    

Nana has caught the attention and imagination of the audience with N Chandra’s Ankush and Bollywood has found another Angry Young Man after Amitabh.   He stole the thunder from the then established actors like Anil Kapoor, Jackie and Anupam Kher in Parinda and redefined villainism in the Hindi Industry.   After the grand success of Parinda, roles were written exclusively for Nana as the main lead, though not as any other typical hero.  Mustafa, Wajood, Yashwant, Prahar and Abtak Chappan were all his solo hits.   

                                                                                               

     
                                  

As his popularity and stardom increased film after film, producers started casting him in multi-starrers, writing meaty roles for him, and some of his memorable performances in multi-starrers were Agni Sakshi, Tiranga, Krantiveer, Apaharan, Rajneeti, Khamoshi, Shakti and many more movies.   He showed his versatility with super comic timing in Welcome and Welcome Back.  

                      

                         

I found many similarities between Nana and Prakash Raj, two of the most gifted actors.   Both are of the same mould; Prakash also never did a hero role, but he dominated the entire Southern Industry, acting in all four languages, with his roles as a villain, character actor and comedian.  Whenever I watched Prakash Raj in some of his brilliant assignments in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam movies, I always felt that if any of these movies were to be remade, only one actor could do justice to these roles, and that was Nana. Some of the producers and directors also might have felt the same way; that is the reason some of the brilliant roles of Prakash Raj were essayed by Nana when they were remade in Hindi and Nana did justice to those roles, like in Shakti (Anthapuram) and It's My Life (Bomarillu).  But to Nana's misfortune, both bombed at the box office in Hindi.   Similarly one of the best roles of Nana in Marathi movie Natsamrat was done by Prakash Raj in the Telugu remake Rangamartanda, and it was very well received.      

Though the southern industry has taken maximum advantage of a powerhouse of talent like Prakash Raj, unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said about Bollywood. They could not really utilise Nana’s extraordinary talent and dialogue delivery to the fullest, except in a few movies.   He would have done many more memorable roles than he has, but for the dearth of opportunities created by Hindi producers and directors.  He could have done great justice to any role assigned to him. 

 

Served Army:

 Very few people know that Nana was trained in the Territorial Army, and at the peak of his career took a break from acting during the Kargil War, and with the special permission of the then Défense Minister, George Fernandes,  he joined the Army's Quick Reaction Team (QRT).    He spent 60 days with the Army across Srinagar, Dras, Leh and lost around 20 kgs.  Nana was unique and different in his personal life also.    He always preferred to stay away from the glitz and glamour of the Hindi industry.   Loved to live a simple life in a village doing farming.    

Though I do not follow the Marathi film industry, I am sure Nana might have done some memorable movies in Marathi also.   He acted in one Tamil movie Kaala with Rajnikant. Overall, a satisfying career for him, and a remarkable and unique contribution to the Hindi and Marathi industries.  

 

Well played, Nana Patekar. We will miss you. Om Shanti.

 

S. Prabhakar

8.10.2026