Gajab Raat Review Roundup: Manoj Bajpayee Shines in a Netflix Thriller Critics Call Decent but Uneven

Manoj Bajpayee’s Netflix thriller Gajab Raat, which premiered on October 23, has divided critics in a very specific way: almost everyone praises the leading man, and almost everyone finds fault with the film around him. Directed by Ritesh Shah and produced by Neeraj Pandey’s Friday Filmworks, the Hindi crime thriller follows a morally compromised Delhi policeman over a single dangerous night, and the critical consensus emerging from the first reviews is that it is a decent, watchable thriller that never quite becomes the film its premise promises.

The story centres on Sub-Inspector Ajay Nirvit, played by Bajpayee, a corrupt, bribe-loving Delhi cop whose night takes a dangerous turn when a severely injured young girl is thrown out of a moving vehicle in Connaught Place. As Ajay investigates, he becomes entangled in a web of crime, secrets, conflicting testimonies and bribes, and discovers that the girl is a journalist carrying evidence of a high-level scandal involving a powerful politician, vaccine imports, crores of rupees and offshore deposits. Powerful people want the girl found — and not all of them want her found alive.

Bollywood Hungama, which rated the film 2.5 out of 5, called it a decent thriller that starts on a promising note but falters in the second half due to unconvincing developments and a convenient climax. Its review praised Bajpayee for rising above the script with a fantastic and entertaining performance, and singled out Akshay Oberoi’s restrained turn, Divya Dutta’s arresting screen presence, Rajiv Gupta’s memorable comic timing and Kiku Sharda’s dependability. But it found Saqib Saleem underused, Nushrratt Bharuccha limited to a cameo as Rosie, and the purpose of several characters insufficiently explained.

Other critics struck a similar balance with different emphases. The Hollywood Reporter India praised Bajpayee’s portrait of an amoral man who remains semi-rotten even during a redemption arc, calling it a balance that might have collapsed in lesser hands, while noting that the film hesitates where it should commit. The Raisina Hills, reviewing the film on October 25, found its most interesting element to be the unusual conflict between conscience and greed, but concluded that a weak script and an unconvincing moral transformation leave much to be desired. Across the reviews, the supporting cast — Divya Dutta, Saqib Saleem, Akshay Oberoi, Kiku Sharda and Shraddha Das — is consistently described as capable but thinly written.

Here is the Filmverse take: Gajab Raat is best understood as a star vehicle that forgot it needed a vehicle. Bajpayee has built a career on making compromised men compelling — from Gangs of Wasseypur to The Family Man — and Ajay Nirvit fits that gallery perfectly: funny, shifty, self-serving, and just redeemable enough to follow for one night. The problem is that a one-night thriller lives or dies on its second half, and when the conspiracy at the centre of Gajab Raat is revealed, critics agree it feels too large for one lone cop and too convenient in its resolution. That is why the film will likely find its audience anyway: on Netflix, a Bajpayee thriller with a strong first hour is an easy Friday-night choice, even if viewers leave feeling it could have been much better.

Watch the trailer here:

Sources: Bollywood Hungama, Hollywood Reporter India, The Raisina Hills