The end of the Cold War in 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union supposedly gave a “peace dividend”. The enormous budgets of the Armed Forces on both sides of the US-USSR divide could now be used for “peaceful purposes”. Or so they thought.
John le Carre’s The Night Manager was published in 1993. While he remotely didn’t intend it to be a symbol of future problems, in retrospect, it can be argued that perhaps the book showed a sign of the times to come. A world awash in arms and people ready to buy and pay for them – legally and illegally. Naturally, the illegal trade was far more profitable than the legal side – as with any other illicit trade.
Richard Roper is an illegal arms dealer who never gets his hands dirty. Jonathan Pine, the Night manager of a hotel, has a score to settle with Roper, as Roper had been responsible for the death of Sophie, who had given details of Roper’s illegal shipments to Pine. She had access to it due to her involvement with Freddie Hamid, who handles the Egyptian end of Roper’s arms deal. Soon Pine is infiltrated into Roper’s inner circle when he saves Roper’s son in a staged holdup. Recovering from his wounds, he is slowly and steadily brought into Roper’s inner circle. However, there are suspicions that he is not who he claims to be. In London, there is a tussle between Pine’s controllers and their higher-ups who don’t want Roper’s work to be disturbed.
No one can write better about morality and people’s inner demons than le Carre.
The Night Manager – English – 2016 – Amazon Prime
The 1993 book was made into a six-part TV series in 2016. The lavish production values are much better than the book’s somewhat sparse look and feel. They are in keeping with the (perceived) jet-setting lifestyle of Roper (Hugh Laurie) and his acolytes. The other difference between the book and the Series is that Jonathan Pine’s (Tom Hiddleston) controller is a woman and that too someone who is heavily pregnant. Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) has to fight for budgets, people and the very existence of her department against her own superiors. She has a loyal assistant Rob Singhal (Adeel Akhtar), who is also marking time with her. She also has the help of the Americans, whose leader Joel Steadman (David Harewood) is fighting against the odds while trying to win in the “prevention” game. All these are, of course, impossible unless they have inside information about Roper’s dealings. This is where Pine comes in and quickly does so with the help of that simple modern tool – a smartphone.
A slight digression here. It’s impossible not to talk of this well-accepted tool as a spy’s dream gadget since it made the famous Minox camera obsolete. Now anyone with a smartphone is a potential spy, not to mention being used as a biometric device to verify identities. All these and more are shown in the Series as a matter of practice.
Pine also forms a dangerously romantic relationship with Roper’s girlfriend/mistress Jed (Elizabeth Debicki), who has secrets, namely a son in her sister’s care and who she misses badly. Major Corky Corcoran (Tom Hollander), Roper’s gay assistant, is openly suspicious of Pine and repeatedly warns Roper. The deal is to take place somewhere in the Middle East. All Pine needs is access to the documents closely guarded by Roper. The tensions build up between everyone as the day of the deal approaches.
The TV series is lavishly mounted across Switzerland, Marrakesh (substituting for Cairo), Istanbul, Majorca and London. More than ever, the superb script by David Farr keeps the Series moving steadily until its final climax. The tension is maintained throughout the Series, and we often wonder what next trap Pine will have to evade to stay alive and get the valuable proofs that would shut down Roper’s operation. Roper is not a man who is given to regrets. As he tells Pine, he uses the system to maximise his profits. In the same way, Pine is also a driven man who only wants justice to prevail. Angela Burr is more driven as she has seen the results of Roper’s illegal deals firsthand.
All the performances are simply outstanding. Hugh Laurie towers above everyone. Maybe this is why they say evil is always more attractive. Olivia Colman is also superb, and so too is Tom Hiddleston. All in all an excellent TV Series that is binge-worthy.
Watch out for the usual John le Carre cameo. He is in Episode 4 and even has a line of dialogue.
Script – 5 out of 5
Story – 5 out of 5
Direction – 5 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Total – 4.8 out of 5
The Night Manager – 2023 – Hindi on Disney Hotstar
An old Hindi saying, “Nakkal me akkal mat lagao” (don’t use your brains while copying). Well, one must hand it to the Indian script writer Shridhar Raghavan who has kept the sensibility of the original English Series absolutely intact so much that the scenes and even the dialogues are straight copies of the original English serial stretched to seven episodes. Naturally, it had the blessings of the original team and le carre’s estate (new editions of the book have the Hindi series on its cover – see left)
So why should you watch it? Simple. The Indian version, even if a scene-by-scene copy, is equally absorbing and holds your attention till the last minute. The following changes are in the script to fit local sensibilities :
- Pine = Shaan Sengupta (Aditya Roy Kapoor), an ex-MARCOS (Naval Commando) officer, who stumbles across evidence of the arms dealing through the death of an innocent underage bride who had helped him. His rage is at …..
- Roper = “Shelly” Rungta (Anil Kapoor), the jet-setting international arms dealer. Anil Kapoor oscillates between being Anil Kapoor and Shelly, and perhaps this is one of the letdowns in the serial.
- Burr = the heavily pregnant Lipika Saika Rao (Tillotama Shome in a delightful performance) who is obstructed as much by her superiors as driven to find proof of Shelly’s activities.
- Jed = Kaveri (Shobita Dullipala), Shelly’s mistress/ girlfriend
All the other characters are more or less the same as in the English serial. As the mysterious ISIS man in episodes 6 and 7, Prashant Narayan is incredibly impressive. So – again – why watch it? Simple. It’s well made and with heavy production values, like the original TV series flitting from location to location like Shimla, Dubai, Sri Lanka, and Dhaka. Last but not the least. The “tradecraft” essential to most Western thrillers is also diligently shown here. The “Indianisation” doesn’t in any way reduce the flavour of the original story or its impact. In summary, this is well made, even if the dialogues and scenes are the exact ones as the original.
Script – 5 out of 5
Story – 5 out of 5
Direction – 5 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Total – 4.8 out of 5
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