Gajab Raat Movie Review: There is a particular kind of Delhi Police sub-inspector that Hindi cinema rarely bothers to put on screen. Not the saint in khaki, not the moustache-twirling sadist, but the man in the middle who knows exactly what every file, every signature and every favour is worth. Gajab Raat, which started streaming on Netflix on 23 October 2026, is built around that man, and Manoj Bajpayee plays him so well that the film around him sometimes struggles to keep up.
This Gajab Raat review stays on the right side of spoilers. The short version: the first hour is sharp, funny and properly tense. The last stretch loses its nerve. Bajpayee never does.
Gajab Raat at a Glance
- Director: Ritesh Shah (directorial debut)
- Writers: Neeraj Pandey, Ritesh Shah, Deepak Venkateshan
- Producer: Neeraj Pandey’s Friday Filmworks
- Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Divya Dutta, Akshay Oberoi, Saqib Saleem, Rajiv Gupta, Shraddha Das, Aditi Sandhya Sharma, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Kiku Sharda, Sunit Tandon
- Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes (Netflix listing)
- Platform: Netflix, from 23 October 2026 (Hindi, with Tamil and other dubs)
- Rating on Netflix: TV-MA
From Ghooskhor Pandat to Gajab Raat
You cannot talk about this film without the title row, so let’s get it out of the way. Netflix first announced the project in February 2026 as Ghooskhor Pandat, with “Pandat” being a nickname for Bajpayee’s cop inside his department. The name drew immediate anger from sections of the Brahmin community. An FIR followed in Uttar Pradesh, the Delhi High Court ordered the teaser and promotional material taken down, and the matter eventually reached the Supreme Court, where Neeraj Pandey gave an undertaking to withdraw the title. The new name and the trailer arrived together on 14 October.
Bajpayee has since said the objectors had seen neither the film nor the trailer. Fair enough. But the change leaves a mark. “Gajab Raat” (roughly, “one strange night”) is a serviceable label that says nothing about the film’s real subject: graft as a way of life.
What the Film Is About (Spoiler-Light)
Sub-Inspector Ajay Nirvit is busy doing what he does best when the night begins: squeezing a hotel owner in Connaught Place who hasn’t been paying enough to him and his boss, SHO Rana (Rajiv Gupta). Then the radio crackles. A badly injured young woman (Aditi Sandhya Sharma) has come out of a moving car right outside PVR Plaza. Moviegoers film it on their phones, the clips go viral within minutes, and because Ajay happens to be nearby, he becomes the investigating officer.
That is when the visitors start arriving. A social worker, Neha Prabhu (Shraddha Das), wants to shadow him. A CBI officer, Madhok (Akshay Oberoi), wants the case. An NIA man, Karan Gill (Saqib Saleem), has a completely different story about who the girl is. One says she is a Russian gangster’s moll; another says she is a British-born activist. Above all of them sits a chief minister (Divya Dutta) who would very much like this to go away before morning.
Ajay, being Ajay, sees the circus as an auction. Everyone wants the girl in the hospital bed. He controls the door. You can do the maths.
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Performances
Manoj Bajpayee as SI Ajay Nirvit
This is the reason to press play. Bajpayee drops the slow, simmering register he has used in so much of his recent work and goes fast. The lines come out in quick, slippery bursts. He gives different answers to the same simple question depending on who is asking. He calls his superiors “sir” so many times that the word turns into a weapon. It is very funny and a little frightening, because the comedy comes from how normal all of it is to him.
The trick he pulls off is keeping Ajay grey even as the night pushes him somewhere better. The film clearly wants a redemption arc. Bajpayee lets it happen without scrubbing the man clean. You never quite believe Ajay will be a different cop tomorrow, and the film is more honest for it.
The Supporting Cast
The best scenes outside Bajpayee’s solo turns are his negotiations with Rajiv Gupta’s SHO Rana. Two tired North Indian cops haggling over a crisis like it is a property deal: that is the film at its most specific and most believable. Divya Dutta, who shared the screen with Bajpayee in Last Man in Tower, plays the chief minister as cold, controlled power, and their exchanges have real bite.
Nushrratt Bharuccha has a small part, but her flirty scenes with Ajay are some of the lightest, warmest minutes in the film. Akshay Oberoi is suitably smooth and hard to read as the CBI officer. Saqib Saleem gets less to do, and Shraddha Das’s activist edges toward caricature.
What Works
The first half has a clear, almost gleeful point of view. Shah has written for Pandey for years, and the dialogue has that Friday Filmworks snap: everyone talks in deals, parables and half-threats, and nobody says what they mean. The single-night structure keeps things moving, and the oddly empty hospital becomes a decent pressure cooker as more people with badges crowd its corridors.
There is also a sly touch in how the case blows up. The girl’s fall is a social media event before the ambulance arrives, and from then on Ajay makes every decision with the internet watching.
What Doesn’t
The style gets in the way. There are slow-motion walks and hero entrances that a film this talky does not need, and a pounding background score that keeps insisting on urgency even when the scene is two men bargaining in a corridor. Trim that, and Gajab Raat would feel tighter by a good margin.
The bigger problem is the final act. Once the film starts explaining who the girl is and why so many powerful people care, it turns tidy and slightly implausible, and some of the bite goes out of it. At least one critic has flagged dubbing and lip-sync issues late on, which hints at reworking. Either way, a film that began by laughing at the system ends up asking you to believe the system can still be shamed into behaving.
Should You Stream It This Weekend?
Yes, with adjusted expectations. Fans of Pandey’s A Wednesday or Special 26 will find plenty here. Go in for a character study of a crooked, clever cop, not a watertight conspiracy thriller, and you will have a good time for most of its two hours. If you liked the police-versus-citizen chess in our Drishyam 3 review, this is a scrappier, more cynical cousin.
One note for families: it is rated TV-MA on Netflix, with violence and adult themes. Not one for the kids’ profile.
Verdict: Manoj Bajpayee turns a bribe-taking sub-inspector into one of his most entertaining characters in years, and that carries Gajab Raat past an overdressed style and a soft, convenient ending. Rating: 3/5
