Rautu Ka Raaz is a dragged-out slow burner of a film that just fails to ignite, sighs Mayur Sanap.
Deepak Negi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a sharp but grumpy cop, dealing with PTSD. He is detached from his elderly parents and lives a lonely life in an Uttarakhand town named Rautu Ki Beli, where he is currently posted.
The mysterious death of Sangeeta (Narayani Shastri), a warden at a local blind school, shakes the village community.
Negi digs into the case and realises there's more here than meets the eye.
What was initially assumed as a death by natural cause gradually turns out to be a planned murder, which leads to more secrets tumbling out.
Like a good mystery, this is a good enough plot to keep us invested and guessing.
But Director Anand Surapur, along with his co-writer Shariq Patel, presents you the story with unvaried conviction which makes this film feel like an episode from a television crime show or at best, like an ordinary theatre play.
A murder mystery unfolding in the hills of Uttarakhand is a sub-genre in Bollywood at this point.
Thankfully, Rautu Ka Raaz slightly differs itself from those films with its absurd comedy approach. Even though the title sounds like a dark chapter from Champak comics, there's an air of light-heartedness that tries to twist the genre elements, albeit only intermittently.
The story relies on many backstories within its main characters as the mystery deepens.
The first two thirds of the film are put to develop the characters, and it's not till the third act where you start seeing where it is all leading to.
Even then, the predictability and clichés creep in that water down the climactic reveal.
Besides Negi, none of the other characters hold our interest and there's nothing unique about them.
The relationship between Negi and his subordinates also feels monotonous, which is mostly laced with out-of-place humour.
What hurts the film most is that Nawazuddin Siddiqui doesn't have much to do as he meanders from scene to scene in a very basic part.
There are no punchy lines or scene-grabbing oddities that made his previous cop outing in Raat Akeli Hai so much more delicious. It is a straight-forward performance and despite Siddiqui's screen presence, he fails to lift up this sluggish affair.
The overall result is a dragged-out slow burner of a film that just fails to ignite.
Rautu Ka Raaz streams on ZEE5.
