Phat Phish Records and Zee Studios’ Rautu Ka Raaz is a murder mystery.
Sangeeta (Narayani Shastri), the warden of Sevadham School for the blind, is murdered. Police inspector Deepak Negi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is in charge of the investigation. Deepak Negi suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Disturbing facts in the murder case make matters even more complicated but the murder mystery is finally solved.
Anand Surapur and Shariq Patel have written a story about a murder and have added characters to make it more intriguing. The duo’s screenplay mostly moves on the beaten path and involves the viewers only partially because the drama fails to rise above the ordinary level. It never reaches the stage when the audience are at the edge of their seats, wondering what’s going to happen. In other words, the screenplay never really rises to a stage where the viewers could miss a heartbeat or two. Anand Surapur and Shariq Patel’s dialogues are ordinary.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui acts ably as police inspector Deepak Negi. He is splendid in some parts. Atul Tiwari does a fine job s college trustee Manoj Kesari. Rajesh Kumar is alright as Deepak Negi’s assistant, police inspector Naresh Dimri. Narayani Shastri is okay as warden Sangeeta in a role which gives her limited scope. Samriddhi Chandola is so-so as hawaldar Lata. Pratham Rathod is alright as student Rajat. Drishti Gaba is ordinary as student Diya. Riya Sisodia provides fair support as Natasha teacher. Anil Rastogi makes his presence felt in a brief role as the home minister. Parimal Alok Jha is so-so as Gobind. Vicky Dutt, Anoop Trivedi, Preeti Sood, Amit Sinha, Gautam Sharma, Som Nayak, Nitin Rana and Krutika Pawar lend average support. Others are passable.
Anand Surapur’s direction is okay. His narration neither bores the audience nor thrills them. Sneha Khanwalkar’s music and Vayu Srivastava’s lyrics are ordinary. Frankly, there’s not much scope for songs. Sayak Bhattacharya’s cinematography is appealing. Haris Umar Khan’s production designing is alright. Editing (by Manish Jaitly and Anand Surapur) is reasonably sharp.
On the whole, Rautu Ka Raaz is too ordinary to make an impact. Lack of promotion will only add to its tale of woes.
Released on 28-6-’24 on Zee5.