Raat Akeli Hai - The Bansal Murders
2025 · Directed by Honey Trehan
Original language: Hindi
- thriller
- mystery
- crime
- drama
The story
When members of the Bansal family are found murdered, Inspector Jatil Yadav uncovers a trail of greed, betrayal and secrets tied to a deadly conspiracy.
What it’s like
Dim, lamp-lit interiors and humid, sepia-tinted nights set the look: cramped rooms of a family house, shadowed corridors, faces half-lit against dark walls, and a restrained colour palette of browns, ochres and muted greens. The camera tends to hold on people in their spaces rather than sweep across them, and the score stays sparse, with low drones and ticking tension in place of big swells. Pacing is deliberate and interrogative, built on conversations, interviews and slow accumulation, so the unease comes from suspicion between people who share a roof. The tone is sombre and cynical, with dark humour and sharp, sometimes coarse dialogue, and the murders are discovered and investigated rather than lingered on, so the dread sits with the atmosphere more than the gore. Violence is present and occasionally direct but not extended, and there is some adult language and sexual innuendo. Suited to late-night viewing alone, to people who enjoy slow-burn Indian crime dramas and morally compromised characters, and to viewers who like a mystery that rewards close attention to who is lying to whom.
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