Rajesh Kumar and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a still from ‘Rautu Ka Raaz’
He is sharp but weird. These are the two adjectives that the residents of Rautu ki Beli, a quiet village in Tehri Garhwal, use to describe Deepak Negi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). A police inspector struggling to break the shackles of personal trauma, a usually sleepless yet canny Negi wakes up one day to find that a murder has broken the tranquillity of his serene territory.
Sangeeta (Narayani Shastri), the warden of a school for the blind, has been found dead in her room. The staff of the school insists it is a natural death. Negi’s team of laggards led by a well-meaning Dimri (Rajesh Kumar) don’t seem eager to stretch themselves. But, the post-mortem report and the intuition of Negi say there is something unusual about Sangeeta’s demise. As the personal and professional intertwine, Negi sheds the inertia around him to have a crack at the murder mystery.
The scene of the crime is dotted with red herrings, plenty of witnesses, and several backstories where characters cross each other’s paths. The needle of suspicion moves towards the school’s founder Kesari (Atul Tiwari) but like the roads on the hills, the investigation either meanders or meets dead ends. Not one to mince words or buckle under political or departmental pressure, Negi pursues the case with dogged determination.
Rautu Ka Raaz (Hindi)
Director: Anand Surapur
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Atul Tiwari, Rajesh Kumar, Narayani Shastri
Run-time: 116 minutes
Storyline: When an unnatural death disturbs the peace of Rautu, Inspector Deepak Negi takes it upon himself to join the dots of the murder mystery
However, the adjectives that the villagers use to describe Negi also define the storytelling, at times. Writer and director Anand Surapur (The Fakir of Venice) and co-writer Shariq Patel have crafted a murder mystery that raises hopes with its vision but underperforms when it comes to execution. It reminds me of the simple Doordarshan days when stories of crime were not always a bloody mess and carried a social message. They looked languid but made a sharp comment on society as the layers of the case unraveled.
Rautu Ka Raaz promises a similar experience. An interesting contrast to the fast-paced, urbane murder mysteries that dot the streaming space, the police procedural is laced with humour emanating from social stereotypes people in small towns live with. The problem is that the purpose of green lighting the subject becomes a little too obvious. A few more drafts and a little more hold over the plot points would have taken away the sense of superficiality and instruction that creeps into the simplicity of the setting.
The backstory of Negi never really touches you or gets enmeshed with the narrative. Kesari and his predilections remain undercooked and the possibilities around the offbeat crime scene, a school for the blind, are more reductive than gripping. Among the supporting cast, Rajesh Kumar stands out as the lumbering Dimri. In a film headlined by Nawazuddin, Rajesh shows the power of less is more.
Like some of his recent films, Nawazuddin is central to the story and has been tasked with doing the heavy lifting without the required padding provided by a perceptive director. He is efficient but even versatile actors need to be restrained. Here it seems, like Negi, Nawaz turned up for work on some days without sprucing the actor in him. For the most part, he is just being Nawaz.
Rautu Ka Raaz is streaming on Zee5
