After headlining a drama (Last Man In Tower) and a political-thriller (Governor) this year, Manoj Bajpayee returns with suspense-thriller Gajab Raat, reuniting with filmmaker Neeraj Pandey after the 2018 crime-thriller Aiyaari. The forthcoming Netflix original is directed by Ritesh Shah and marks his first collaboration with Bajpayee.
The makers released the film's trailer earlier today. The opening seconds set the story's context, showing a raid at a hotel, a girl in a pink dress (Nushrratt Bharuccha) running frantically across the hotel corridor and another girl who is thrown out of a moving car with a face full of cuts, bruises and blood.
Then enters Bajpayee, the cop at the centre of this case. The actor portrays a morally grey police officer named Ajay Dixit, who swings between personal gain and doing what is morally right.
Pandey, who maintains his creative association with Netflix following Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, Sikandar Ka Muqaddar and Taskaree, said, "Gajab Raat is a thriller where the choices that people make push them to a point where there are no easy answers. The tension comes as much from the moral dilemmas the characters face as from the events unfolding over the course of one night."
Bajpayee said he is delighted to work on Gajab Raat and calls working with Pandey a "wonderful experience." The duo first collaborated on the cult comedy thriller Special 26. "I have always been drawn to characters who are not easy to define, and this film gave me the opportunity to inhabit a world filled with suspense, moral dilemmas and questions of accountability. What makes the story particularly compelling is how the characters’ motivations gradually reveal themselves as the night unfolds," said the actor.
Billed as a gritty thriller, Gajab Raat also features Saqib Saleem, Akshay Oberoi, Divya Dutta and Shraddha Das. The film is produced by Pandey’s Friday Film Works and will premiere on Netflix on October 23.