Gajab Raat Review
Director: Neeraj Pandey and Ritesh Shah
Date Created: 2026-10-23 21:00
1.5
Gajab Raat Review: Directed by Ritesh Shah and co-written by Neeraj Pandey, the Netflix crime thriller film stars Manoj Bajpayee as Ajay Nirvet, alongside Divya Dutta, Akshay Oberoi, Saqib Saleem, Rajiv Gupta, Shraddha Das, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Kiku Sharda and others. The movie has a runtime of 2 hours and 3 minutes.
Gajab Raat Review
In Netflix’s Gajab Raat, Ajay Nirvet, a police sub-inspector, has been working for about 20 years in the same job with no desire to change anything. He is more interested in earning money than performing his duties properly. Even the raid at a hotel is used by him to ask for a bigger share of the profits from the crime rather than enforcing the law.
Everything changes when a young lady, who has been injured, gets off a speeding vehicle in the vicinity of Connaught Place. While the story may seem simple in the beginning because it looks like another case of sexual abuse, it soon becomes clear that men from various investigative agencies are arriving to control the situation. The attempt on the life of the lady at the hospital makes the matter even more complicated and leads Ajay to a vaccine scam.
The character of Ajay in the Netflix film Gajab Raat is not established as someone who has made a couple of bad choices by mistake. This is a man who has lived his entire life using his uniform to earn additional cash on the side. The way Ajay exploits people during the hotel raid gives us a clear picture of what type of policeman he is. He understands how things work in the system, knows how he can exploit the system, and apparently has reconciled himself with who he is.
The problem is that the Gajab Raat movie tries to make me believe that one case is enough to change his view on things without focusing enough on what is going on inside him. This girl who got injured has her own tragic story. Her parents tell us how she managed to survive premature birth and then grow up to be a journalist who could make a difference. Her father’s support and her mother’s doubts about the cost of taking the righteous path create an interesting juxtaposition to Ajay’s comfortable existence with lies. This is a person who seems to be ready to endure suffering in the name of her beliefs, while he spent many years abusing his power.
On the other hand, Ajay’s change seems too swift. It is easy to see the point in making him reconsider his own conduct after meeting a person whose life has been drastically affected by the decisions he has made. Understanding the point does not mean accepting the change; the thing is, why should he reconsider his twenty years of corruption all of a sudden? Does he finally see the ramifications of what he has been doing, does he see part of himself in the woman’s story, or is he just reacting to the immediate danger around him? Not enough thought has been put into these questions, and hence, his change seems more like an obligatory element of the script.
I also believed that the movie needed more depth for the characters. It provides sufficient material for a thrilling political drama in light of the conspiracy concerning the vaccine scam. The notion that the individuals who are expected to protect the community can end up becoming a pawn in a huge chess game of politics is very captivating. However, it seemed like the movie was more focused on unveiling one thing after the other without explaining why these people got involved in such shenanigans. It would have been nice to know more about the motivations behind their greed. What were the interests of those people, and what did they stand to gain?
The same issue is observed in regard to the secondary characters of the movie. Multiple individuals appear in the investigation with claims on the matter, but their appearance does not necessarily mean their character development. Interesting secondary characters are introduced, but they have very little to do in the film. Divya Dutta creates an impression through her brief appearance as a politician, and Rajiv Gupta offers entertaining dialogue interactions with Ajay. But most of the other characters seem to serve more as means to keep the investigation going than as convincing individuals with their own motivations. Even when there is an attempt to use them to shape events, it does not make me feel that I know them.
The only actor who manages to make Ajay worth watching is Manoj Bajpayee. He perfectly catches the casual brazenness of a cop who has become used to getting what he wants, and the character becomes amusing thanks to his impudent approach despite the fact that the character’s behavior is sometimes hard to put up with. It was great how confident and at ease Ajay felt during the hotel raid.
There is no feeling that he found his own actions unusual in any way, this is just the way he conducts business. Manoj Bajpayee understood this and made the character look like an experienced guy. However, I had already seen him play cops and similar characters many times before, and this acting talent was not enough to support the movie on its own.
The ending of the 2026 Gajab Raat movie was another disappointment for me even though I did not need an unexpected shock. I needed a resolution which would be justified through the actions of Ajay and the questions posed by the movie on corruption, greed, and responsibility. Unfortunately, the quest does not end as satisfyingly as one would have liked. Having spent considerable time with a protagonist who shifts his moral values, there was a need for the movie to ensure that the shift was justified beyond the immediate experience of that night. The poor character development makes this impossible.
Netflix Gajab Raat Review: Summing Up
Manoj Bajpayee’s Gajab Raat turned out to be disappointing, as the storyline had a lot more to offer than the movie itself. Bajpayee delivers an impressive performance, and the topic of corruption in organisations needs a more in-depth crime thriller. However, the superficial examination of greed, poorly developed characters, and unbelievable changes in Ajay’s behaviour do not allow the movie to reach its peak. The ending itself does not bring the sense of closure that I hoped to see after spending more than two hours on this investigation.
Also Read: Chaar Yaar Review: Too Many Twists and Too Little Depth Make This Crime Drama a Disappointment
