Gone Guys:
Science fiction has not yet caught in a big way on in the Indian OTT or cinema space. It is Korean serial Signal that offered up the opportunity of adapting a plot about cyclical time that is not totally alien because it is a variation of the belief in karma— what one does in the past can affect the future. Signal floats the idea that an act in the future can alter the past. In such a scenario, death is not irrevocable and if there is someone willing to drive the engine, then karma would eventually catch up with every evildoer.
The Hindi web series Gyaarah Gyaarah, adapted and directed by Umesh Bisht, with a screenplay by Sunjoy Shekhar and Puja Banerji, has the joint production might of Karan Johar and Guneet Monga Kapoor’s companies, so the eight-part show (on ZEE5) has a glossy look, compared to the bleak grayness of the Korean series.
Gyaarah Gyaarah has been shot (by Kuldeep Mamania) on beautiful locations in Uttarakhand, with occasions built in to show off local colour, music and folk dance. So a kidnapping scene shot outside an empty school building in Signal is shot in a bustling village fair, or a sequence in an abandoned hospital in the original is set in a derelict textile mill; the mother of a kidnapped child in Signal standing in solitary protest against police inaction is accompanied by dozens of placard carrying protesters in Gyaarah Gyaarah.
Bisht has retained the central concept of a wireless device connecting two cops in different time zones, helping both to solve complicated cases.
A child, Yug (Yug Pandya), had witnessed the abduction of a little girl from a fair. She us later found dead. When a man is named as the culprit, he tries to tell the cops that they have the wrong person, but nobody listens to a kid. He grows up to be an angry young cop (Raghav Juyal), who has trouble with authority.
He hears his name called out on a defunct wireless transmitter and speaks to Shaurya (Dhairya Karwa) who has found the body of the missing kidnapper in an old factory. Intrigued, Yug goes there and finds the bones, that match the DNA of the accused. He calls out the false statement of the nasty, foul-mouthed superintendent (Harsh Chhaya) on live news. After getting the support of his immediate superior, Vamika (Kritika Kamra) and a tremendous race against time they capture the real culprit before the statute of limitations runs out in a few minutes (which was not ever practiced India, but this much creative liberty for the sake of nail-biting thrill is acceptable).
To punish Vamika and her team for defying him, the vengeful SP creates a cold case unit and dumps them in a dusty corner. The first assignment is to solve a 26-year old serial killer case, in which the monster strangled, defaced and trusted up young women with a red dupatta.
By this ime Yug and Shaurya regularly talk over the wireless that squawks alive for just one minute at 11.11 pm. The two figure out the strangeness of their time-straddling communication, and when Yug is able to warn Shaurya of a murder in advance, he is able to prevent it and this changes things in the future.
Unknown to each other, the men have another person in common — Vamika was in love with Shaurya in the past, and waits 15 years for him to return after an unexplained disappearance. Of course there has to be an annoying mother nagging her to get married!
Signal (streaming on Netflix) is far more complex, with terrific plotting that has all the scattered nuts and bolts coming together with a satisfying click and scope remaining for a sequel.
Bisht has made up for the simplification with a dizzying pace, and every episode ending with a hook that demands a binge watch. The performances are apt too– Kamra playing tough and vulnerabie; Juyal intense and Karwa earnest. Gautami Kapoor leaves an impression in her short role as the murdered child’s mother, fighting for justice.
There are enough unresolved plot lines left to explore and a sequel must be in the works. Gyaarah Gyaarah is one of the most enjoyable crime shows to come out on OTT in quite a while… and not a terrorist in sight!
(This piece first appeared in scroll.in)
