Before it became annals, Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination was a moment that shattered the country’s conscience. The country witnessed a collapse of a vision. The Hunt – The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination brings this seismic event back into sharp focus, not through sensationalism but through a lens that questions everything.
The National Award-winning filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor turns his lens toward one of the most pivotal and haunting chapters in India’s modern history. Adapted from Anirudhya Mitra’s investigative account, Ninety Days, the series unfolds not as a retelling, but as a methodical excavation.
The series refuses to follow the path of political propaganda. Instead, it steps into the grey zones, where personal choices, fractured ideologies, and desperate decisions collide. The narrative explores the motives of the LTTE, shaped by years of conflict and betrayal. The story does not ask the viewer to take sides. It asks them to look closer.
It follows the high-stakes pursuit of justice by the Special Investigation Team in the immediate aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi’s tragic assassination in 1991. The series precisely honours the source material, all measured in tone, rigorous in detail, and unafraid to confront the unsettling truths that emerged during the course of the probe.
The director, along with co-writers Rohit Banawalikar and Sriram Rajan, weaves with precision. We see control. Silences that make each scene breathe and in chronology. The pace remains patient, and screams with questing purpose. The series, therefore, gives the narrative a spine of sensitivity.
The ensemble evokes authenticity in every scene. Amit Sial, portraying D.R. Kaarthikeyan with quiet intensity and authority, collars both the burden and focus of a man leading a nation’s most critical manhunt. Alongside him, Sahil Vaid, Bhagavathi Perumal, and Danish Iqbal step into the shoes of the investigation team with sharp precision, never once slipping into caricature. Shafeeq Mustafa, Anjana Balaji, Shruthy Jayan, and B Sai Dinesh round out the cast with performances that feel lived-in and uncoerced, grounding the series in human stakes. There’s no false note here. Every actor carries the weight of the story.
Produced by Applause Entertainment and Kukunoor Movies, the series refuses to dramatise the trauma. Instead, it focuses on process: the slow tightening of the net, the missteps, the politics, and the relentless grind of justice.
With its atmospheric depth, the series hooks you. It blends facts with feeling. As you watch, you witness the manhunt rush. Sticking to the 90-day investigation, right after the bomb blast.
The show aims to evoke memories of the past. And it makes ‘sure’ we do too.
The Hunt – The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case is streaming on Sony LIV.
IWMBuzz rates it 4 stars.
