The first episode of “The Night Manager” opened a big can of worms for Shan Sengupta, an employee with a 5-star hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he had to witness the death of Safina Rizwan, the child bride of Freddie Rehman, a corrupt local businessman. Life since the incident has been tough for Shan, and he has had nightmares of Safina falling to her death right in front of his eyes. He is aware of who was behind the murder, but Safina’s death was adjudged suicide after a robbery went wrong. Shan is aware that things will twist and turn in favor of Freddie Rehman, and he is smart enough to escape Bangladesh. Shan had contacts at the Embassy of India in Bangladesh, and his wanting to help R&AW nab Shailendra Rungta red-handed was enough for the agency to help him pack his bags and leave the country for good.
Shan is far from getting over the nightmare in Bangladesh. Though he left that life a long time ago, there is not one day that he does not think about Safina and how he failed to rescue her from the horror of an early death. His work as a Night Manager with a five-star resort in Shimla is his new stint. Packed away amidst the snow of the town, drowning in his misery, Shan has probably sort of lost the ability to close his eyes and sleep; that is one reason he took the job of night manager at the resort. One night, he comes across information of Shailendra Rungta visiting the resort for a few days. This rings all the alarm bells in his body, even though this is the name he has not heard in years. He is shivering and is instantly awakened to start working on what his plan of action should be when they land. Shan is calm and composed as the guests arrive with their business partners and their families. Shailendra recalls the name, but he is unable to place Shan after the Bangladesh fiasco. Shan refuses to acknowledge that he ever worked in Bangladesh. Shan is horrified to see the man who is responsible for killing the young and innocent Safina. While remaining calm, he finds a way to make all of them feel comfortable.
Shan knew there was a package waiting for Shailendra at the office, and he made use of it to gather as much intel as he could, hoping someday it would be helpful for him or the intelligence agencies to get a hold of Shailendra, aka Shelly. The only game plan he has is to bring down Shelly and his associates, hoping it would help him not only find closure but also ensure that Safina’s death would not go in vain. Shan served the navy as well, as revealed by him to Shelly, and as armed personnel, he refuses to help anyone who would willingly kill anyone for money. As Shelly, his associates, and his family leave the resort, they form quite the impression of Shan, who is ready to comply with their demands, especially Shelly’s. He sees a man with character in Shan, as well as someone who has seen pain. Shelly is intrigued by Shan’s work and ethics so far.
Shan is happy to have remained unsuspected by Shelly and his associates, which helps him gain traction and earn a percentage of trust from Shelly. Shan manages to get hold of the old sim cards disposed of by Shelly’s men and the new sim cards to stay ahead of them; and sends them off in a package to Lipika, hoping this will help her build a strong case against him. Shan makes sure to save all the CCTV footage of Shelly, his guests, and associates and sends those to her and her team, who have been shifted to take care of the archival section of the investigation body. Lipika’s change of station is the direct result of her involvement in trying to bring down Shelly and trying to save Safina. She is happy to have heard from Shan after years, but she is elated to witness the amount of intel he can gather about him being just a night manager. Lipika visits Shimla to meet Shan and asks about his purpose of gathering hard-core critical information about Shelly. Shan’s only purpose was to bring down Shelly and make him take responsible for Safina’s death and the destruction he was causing by supplying arms to countries and waging war against people. Shan is an ex-armed forces person, and he knows the pain locals go through when a war breaks out. He wants Shelly to be accountable for all the deeds he has done. Shan would be at peace if he ever came to know Shelly was arrested.
Lipika, on the other hand, has a whole different plan laid out for Shan. Taking into consideration his navy background, Lipika proposes to Shan that he be her ear while he infiltrates Shelly’s camp, which is operating from Sri Lanka presently, and gathers more critical information about his illegal arms trade. Shan will have to gather information about Shelly’s henchmen, Brij Pal, Jayu, and lawyer Jeevi. The more information available, the stronger the case against Shelly, from which he won’t be able to run away. She will have to handle the case without anyone in her office knowing about it, for she is aware there is an insider who is providing information to Shelly. Shan agrees to be a part of this mission, but he has to follow the game plan step by step to make up a reason to reach Sri Lanka. The elaborate plan would be to incriminate Shan in a robbery from his hotel, followed by his arrest and jail time, further followed by Shan escaping from the police van, forcing him to take up another passport to head to Sri Lanka. The whole setup was to establish authenticity if he ever gets into Shelly’s camp. Shelly is an extremely intelligent man, and he would smell an inkling of betrayal from him. The alibi must be strong enough for Shelly to let Shan into his inner circle.
To nail the plan, while Shelly, his wife Kaveri, and kid Taha, along with business partners Brij Pal and Jayu and his family vacation in Sri Lanka, Taha is held hostage right in front of the family by the kidnappers who demand $1 million as a ransom amount and take away the kid. The kidnappers were hired to make sure Shan rescued Taha and got rid of the goons. This would make Shelly have immense trust in Shan because an unknown man like him fought to rescue his only son from danger. The plan goes awry when Shan ends up gravely injuring one of the hired men, and the other hired man, in retaliation, beats Shan to a pulp. A free Taha informs them of the man who helped him. Shan keeps mumbling not to involve the police while Shelly takes it upon himself to help the man, who is barely alive and seriously injured. Shan, because of his injuries and the fact he is flown away to safety by Shelly, briefly goes off the radar, much to Lipika’s horror. Lipika, at this point, is not sure what transpired on the island, and she can only guess if Shan had died in action trying to make this operation a success or if he has been caught as a spy before he can start the work on Shelly. All Lipika can do is be patient and wait to hear from Shan at some point, whether it’s good news or bad.
Lipika and Shan are taking the road less traveled, which is long and tedious. Their slow and steady approach will assist them in gathering more information on Shelly, his business, his associates, and how deep Shelly’s rot is, which will help them determine the sentencing of the said man. To prove him culpable, Shan and Lipika would need indestructible proof that will make sure Shelly goes behind bars for a very long time. With Shan on Shelly’s radar, Lipika can only hope things go as per their plan.
