Science fiction has not yet caught on in a big way in Indian films or shows. It’s the Korean serial Signal that offered the opportunity to explore cyclical time, which is familiar to India being a variation of the belief in karma. Signal floats the idea that an act in the future can alter the past. In such a scenario, death is not irrevocable. With a willing agent, karma will eventually catch up with every evildoer.
The Hindi version of Signal has a glossy look compared to the Korean show’s bleak greyness. Gyaarah Gyaarah, adapted and directed by Umesh Bisht, with a screenplay by Sunjoy Shekhar and Puja Banerji, is out on ZEE5.
The eight-part series has been shot by Kuldeep Mamania on beautiful locations in Uttarakhand, with occasions built in to show off local colour, music and folk dance. A kidnapping scene filmed outside an empty school building in Signal is located at a bustling village fair in Gyaarah Gyaarah. The mother of a kidnapped child standing in solitary protest against police inaction in the original series has dozens of placard-carrying protesters in the Indian version.
Bisht has retained the central concept of a wireless device connecting two cops in different time zones, helping both solve complicated cases. As a young boy Yug (Yug Pandya) witnesses a little girl’s abduction. He insists that the man named as the culprit is innocent, but nobody listens to the kid. He grows up to be an angry young cop (Raghav Juyal), who has trouble with authority.
Yug hears his name called out on a defunct wireless transmitter and speaks to Shaurya (Dhairya Karwa), who has found the missing kidnapper’s body in an old factory. Intrigued, Yug goes there and finds a match with the accused’s DNA.
After getting the support of his superior officer Vamika (Kritika Kamra), they race against time to capture the real culprit before the statute of limitations runs out (which was not ever practised in India, but this much creative liberty for the sake of nail-biting thrills is acceptable).
After Yug clashes with his nasty, foul-mouthed superintendent (Harsh Chhaya), the vengeful SP creates a cold case unit and dumps Yug and Vamika in a dusty corner. Their first assignment is to solve a 26-year old serial killer case.
By this time, Yug and Shaurya regularly talk over the wireless that squawks alive for just one minute at 11.11 pm. The duo figures out the strangeness of their time-straddling communication, which has the power to prevent crimes from happening. Unknown to each other, they have something in common.
Signal (which is on Netflix) is far more complex. Terrific plotting ensures that all the scattered nuts and bolts come together with a satisfying click.
Bisht makes up for the simplification with a dizzying pace. Every episode ends with a hook that demands a binge watch. The performances are apt too – Kritika Kamra playing tough and vulnerable, Raghuv Juyal intense and Karwa earnest. Gautami Kapoor leaves an impression as the murdered child’s mother.
There are enough unresolved plot lines left to be explored. Gyaarah Gyaarah is one of the most enjoyable crime shows to come out on a streaming platform in quite a while – and there isn’t a terrorist in sight.
