Gajab Raat: How Corruption, Class and the Business of Power Come Together

Released on October 23, 2026, on Netflix, Gajab Raat, the crime thriller directed by Ritesh Shah, follows a Delhi police sub-inspector whose routine night takes an ugly turn when an injured woman becomes the centre of a case involving suspicious officials, powerful people and a conspiracy much larger than just a street crime. The film shows a single “raat” that brings together corruption and political interference.

What makes Ajay Nirvit (Manoj Bajpayee) interesting is not that he is a bad man who might become good; it is that he has become rather comfortable being bad for a living, and the film eventually asks what could make someone like him reconsider.

Gajab Raat and the Problem With Corruption: Does It Stop With One Bribe?

Ajay, the central character, commits corruption that is not some grand, elaborate criminal operation but the everyday kind. The one that becomes routine because everyone involved has found a way to justify it somehow: a little money, a favour, an ignored complaint. This is where Gajab Raat gets at something worth examining; corruption is often discussed through the spectacular scandals or the officials whose names suddenly become headlines, but the machinery that allows these things to happen does not begin automatically at the top and needs people at every level willing to participate.

Ajay belongs to the machinery, and his presence makes the question of accountability considerably messier because he cannot simply blame the people above him without really confronting his own role in keeping the arrangement alive.

Ajay Nirvit and the Inconvenience of Having a Conscience

Honestly, morally complicated protagonists are easy to create on paper, but making their transformations believable is another matter. Ajay begins as a man who understands self-preservation far better than professional responsibility: he is comfortable with bribery and knows how to get away with conversations with his superiors, and has survived by understanding where the boundaries are.

As the case involving the injured woman begins, an interesting question appears. Whether the conscience has any practical value when using it could cost him something. Ajay’s situation is especially uncomfortable because he has built his professional life around taking those advantages whenever possible. Therefore, his potential redemption cannot just depend on him making one correct decision.

There are the questions that could have made Ajay’s journey genuinely affecting. His contradiction already exists: a man who knows how to manipulate the system is suddenly expected to challenge it. Whether the change feels earned is an entirely different question and one that the film’s treatment of the transformation leaves open to debate.

The single-night chronology also makes Ajay’s unpleasant situation more immediate, with little room for the comfortable distance that comes with a long investigation. Decisions need to be taken while the situation is unfolding, and the result of trusting the wrong people could be rather immediate.

Who Gets to Make Mistakes?

The class divide in Gajab Raat becomes particularly visible when Ajay’s position is considered alongside the people operating at the higher levels of conspiracy. An ordinary person caught in the system does not necessarily have the resources to negotiate with it. A powerful political figure, on the other hand, can have access to people, institutions and networks that help protect their reputation. Divya Dutta’s Sunita Chaudhary, a politician, represents the more powerful end of the arrangement. Her character’s position within the political world offers a contrast to Ajay’s character, whose authority, even though real, is limited.

The difference becomes more troubling when reputations are at stake, with the consequences of wrongdoings not distributed equally. Some people risk their jobs, freedom or even safety, while others have more opportunities to distance themselves from the issue, shift the blame and ensure that the public sees the version that is good for them. The film’s social critique is strong, allowing the unequal positions to remain visible rather than reducing the conflict to a straightforward battle between good and evil.

The Messy Question Left Behind

What makes Gajab Raat worth discussing is the collision between the ideas. A corrupt cop, a politically sensitive investigation, competing agencies and a vaccine conspiracy could become the ingredients in a conventional thriller about catching the wrongdoers, but the more interesting possibility is in the uncomfortable connections between them.

Ajay is part of the system he is being asked to challenge. The investigation becomes a contest over information and authority, while the people most vulnerable to the consequences remain far removed from the decisions being made; then there is also the part of redemption. There is no pretending that a single night can undo the years of corruption, and that would be far too convenient, particularly for a character who has benefitted from the system’s failures. However, a night can expose the limits of the excuses someone has been using to live with.

The problem with corruption is not that powerful people get away with things but rather that the people who keep running can convince themselves that their own contribution is too small to matter, and Gajab Raat brings that contradiction into the central character even when the larger conspiracy struggles to give every idea the space it deserves.

What did you like the most about the themes Gajab Raat explores? Tell us in the comments.

Watch Gajab Raat on Netflix.

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