FILM REVIEW: RAUTU KA RAAZ

'Rautu ka Raaz', which debuted on ZEE5 on June 28, stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui as an investigator sent to a slumbering village who suffers from insomnia. By itself, this idea seems like a rich field for research on sleep disorders or for law enforcement in smaller Indian towns and villages. In addition to being a murder mystery, "Rautu Ka Raaz" does both and provides an alternative approach to how the disabled are portrayed in mainstream Indian movies. The following is a brief synopsis of the story of Anand Surapur's film "Rautu Ka Raaz," without revealing the conclusion: In Rautu Ki Beli, a real village in Tehri, Uttarakhand, the warden of a blind school is discovered murdered in her chamber.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Inspector Deepak Negi is called in to look into the matter. At the beginning of the investigation, most people are dragging their feet due to small-town lethargy. Eventually, SHO Negi tells sub-inspector Naresh Dimri (Rajesh Kumar) that there is so much opposition that "Arrey, bhej de na body post-mortem ke liye; tera kya jaa raha hai? (By sending the body for a post-mortem, what will you lose? Simply execute it)." Then, when a politician believes he has something to gain from the investigation's conclusion, things go out of hand. The chase of wealth muddies the waters and many people, both inside and outside the blind school, have plenty to conceal, but in the end, the "sharp yet weird" Negi unearths the culprit - clearly. The word "raaz," which means secret, may be overstating the case in Rautu Ka Raaz, despite the poem's lovely alliterative ring.

All the same, there are five reasons to watch 'Rautu Ka Raaz': Firstly, Negi is not like other Bollywood on-screen cops; this includes Ranveer Singh in 'Simbba' and Amitabh Bachchan in 'Zanjeer'. Undoubtedly, there have been other Hindi movies that present police in a less dramatic and possibly more accurate manner. However, 'Rautu Ka Raaz' does away with the chases and confrontations in the Bollywood manner entirely. There aren't any combat scenes, major revelations, or protracted monologues—at least not from the heroic policeman. Instead, we get the same kind of police officer—albeit one who suffers from insomnia—that we could have seen in a local police station. We get to observe part of the police work's methodology in 'Rautu Ka Raaz'.

While there are moments of deus ex machina, wherein luck seems to favor the inspector unduly (as when a video of the crime scene gives Negi a crucial clue that everyone else overlooks), the majority of police work is depicted in this work as involving a great deal of questioning, cross-referencing answers, going door-to-door to gather information, apprehending suspects, and repeatedly reviewing testimonies and evidence. Naturally, Bollywoodization has been applied to certain parts. It might not be practical for an inspector, for instance, to lie to someone or steal their journal in order to obtain information. The conclusion is also not at all realistic. However, these are minor deviations from the standard fare of both police procedurals and crime thrillers.

More respect is shown to the blind kids of the fictional Sewadham School in Rautu Ka Raaz than is typically the case in popular films. Like other students their age in a boarding school, the youngsters go about their daily lives, playing, studying, dating, and other activities. Not unusual for their age are the things that happen to them and the things they worry about. As a pair and as two ambitious, self-reliant teenagers, Rathod and Gaba are endearing, not to mention terrific friends. In Bollywood and in real life, it is relatively uncommon to treat people with disabilities in a "normal" manner. A pair of Rautu Ki Beli peasants converse about local happenings while perched on a seat outside a tea shop. They make sporadic appearances throughout the movie. They always express some variation of this viewpoint: "Negi tez hai, aur ajeeb bhi." Toh toh pataa kar hi lega (Negi is perceptive, yet peculiar).

He will undoubtedly unravel the mystery. The director employs a theatrical company in addition to this chorus-like interruption, which serves as a source of comic relief and cues the rhythms of rural India, where the adda remains a forum for discussion and deliberation. 'Rautu Ka Raaz's' first half has a playful, almost comedic tone. Take an example of this: A constable arrives at the crime site early in the 110-minute movie and moves the body. The offending constable asks, "Unhe (SHO Negi) kaise pataa chalega yeh kaunse karvat mari thi?" after a minute of panic. How would he find out which way she was facing when she passed away?" Even the lower-ranking police are reluctant to consider the case anything other than a case of natural death at this point. The junior police officers have more justification to try to dismiss the case because of the error and cover-up. Both the background score and the tale take a more somber turn in the second half.