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 normally 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 college for the blind, has been discovered lifeless in her room. The employees of the college insists it’s a pure loss of life. Negi’s group of laggards led by a well-meaning Dimri (Rajesh Kumar) don’t appear desirous to stretch themselves. However, the autopsy report and the instinct of Negi say there’s something uncommon about Sangeeta’s demise. As the non-public {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 crimson herrings, loads of witnesses, and several other backstories the place characters cross one another’s paths. The needle of suspicion strikes in direction of the college’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 below political or departmental stress, 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 relating to execution. It jogs my memory of the easy Doordarshan days when tales of crime weren’t all the time a bloody mess and carried a social message. They regarded languid however made a pointy touch upon society because the layers of the case unraveled.

Rautu Ka Raaz guarantees the same expertise. An attention-grabbing distinction to the fast-paced, urbane homicide mysteries that dot the streaming area, the police procedural is laced with humour emanating from social stereotypes individuals in small cities dwell 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 college for the blind, are extra reductive than gripping. Among the many supporting forged, 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 offered 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 essentially the most half, he’s simply being Nawaz.

Rautu Ka Raaz is streaming on Zee5