The stunning Sobhita Dhulipala, who plays Kaveri, asks her super rich husband, ‘We’ve been together for so long and yet I don’t know what it is you do.’
That is the least of Anil Kapoor’s problems. We know, because we watched Tillotama Shome’s Lipika Saikia Rao, Joy Sengupta’s Danish Khan recruit Aditya Roy Kapur’s Shan Sengupta to find proof that Shelly Rungta (Anil Kapoor is one of the finest villains on screen) is an arms dealer. That happens in Season One that ended in a delicious cliffhanger and we ended up marking a reminder on the show.
Before the proof-finding mission actually takes place, a confession. Aditya Roy Kapur would usually show up on screen quite awkward with his long limbs (that would explain why he has been shown mostly at the mercy of Bacchus in his films — whether as the heartbroken lover in Aashiqui 2, 2013, or the generally alcoholic friend in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, 2013).
But in The Night Manager, he showed up as a sexy lad (many thanks to the female director of the show Priyanka Ghose for that sensational transformation). Never thought I’d react to a shirtless lad jumping into a pool or strolling barefoot on the beach, buttons of his shirt undone. At first, I blamed it on the objectification of the male body in shows like Bridgerton (2020). But realised that there must be more, because Tom Hiddleston who plays the same role and has a legion of female fans, does not evince the same reaction when seen shirtless as Kapur does. So, he made for a rather interesting casting choice. And it worked because several people (mostly men) on social media complained how he just did not ‘look Bengali enough’.
In Season One, that wrapped up with Shelly and Shan shaking hands on a partnership, leaving Saikia wondering if Shan had flipped sides thanks to the unlimited money Rungta may have offered him.
The story now takes off with Shelly and his longtime co-conspirator Jaiveer Singh aka JV propping up Shan Sengupta as a new face to their new ‘deal’ with Saudis. With his name changed to Abhimanyu Mathur, Shan is pretty good when covering up his horror at discovering how agricultural equipment is being used to disguise the purchase of arms. As someone unkindly said, it helps because the role does not require too much emoting from the lead character…I admit I was too distracted by Shan Sengupta’s eyelashes to care. The show is a hundredfold better than the vituperative-ridden, small-town India-based, political or drug-laced shows.
While Sobhita Dhulipalia is meant to be the seductive love interest of the villain, she is soon charmed by Shan as well. Plus Shan earns brownie points because he’s so good with Shelly’s son Taha. That brings us to Tillotama Shome who is naturally a good actor, but here she’s made to duckface when she speaks and that is a trifle disconcerting. But she’s a fun watch (action sequences while visibly pregnant!). Joy Sengupta’s hesitant yet honest co-worker with Tillotama Shome is a great foil.
A character who put the dread of vicious powerful men in the pit of my stomach wasn’t the evil Anil Kapoor, Shelly Rungta who says, ‘You forgot to fear me.’ It was the unrelenting viciousness of Freddie Rahman who had no compunctions in throwing his very young bride out of the hotel window… Well done Resh Lamba! You saw him act in CityLights (2014), Bell Bottom (2021) and more. But as Freddie Rahman, Resh Lamba instils the same fear in the audience that Shan Sengupta feels when he shows up in Dhaka again.
Of course, one can write pages about how brilliant Anil Kapoor is, having reinvented himself as a villain ever since shows and films started streaming on different platforms. This Hotstar special will give many heartburn to see that Anil Kapoor’s Shelly gets to kiss the beautiful Kaveri, but without any raised eyebrow order his henchman to get her to spill the beans. Before I cross the line with any more spoilers, let me make a wish for more content like this from Disney+ Hotstar and add Aditya Roy Kapur to my cheesecake-for-the-eyes list.
The Night Manager Season 2 released on Disney+ Hotstar on June 30
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