Gyaara Gyaara - Time Bender

Gyaarah Gyaarah (11:11)

Mystery / Crime

8 Episodes - Approx. 43 mins each
Streaming on Zee 5

This is an official remake of the Korean Drama Signal (available on Netflix). I have not watched the original, which is from 2016, when i was only into the famous Korean movies, mostly crime thrillers.  If you have already watched the original, you may not get anything new.  If not you will be happy watching a reasonably good mini series, which i am sure will be an effective condensation of the original (K drama/shows have huge run times!)

The prologue is set in 1990 Dehradun, when a young boy is seen playing with another girl of his age at the local fair.  He sees the girl leave with someone mysterious. Cut to the next scene, the corpse of the girl is recovered from a swamp. 

Now, in 2016, the young boy has grown into a policeman (Yug , Raghav Juyal),  trying to solve the  15 year old case. It is a race against time, before all such  "cold cases" are closed , due to a government decree.  Mysteriously at 11:11 one night,  something strange happens and a decrypt walkie talkie crackles to life with the voice of another policeman (Shaurya, Dhairya Karva) who is calling out to Yug, sharing a critical finding of the investigation - Except  he is from 1990!

Yug follows through and makes critical discoveries which help his team,  led by a DSP (Vamika Rawat , Kritika Kamra) solve the case. They form a "Cold Case" unit to investigate similar cases.  The 11:11 calls continue to happen, with both the cops figuring they are in allies from different centuries, as they team up to solve different cases. 

Do Yug's discoveries help Shaurya prevent crimes in the past ? Does it alter the past? What is Vamika's connection in all of this? Over 8 well paced episodes, events unfold which rather nicely connect  the three principal characters. 

Raghav Juyal ( One of the young dancers from Dance India Dance , as also his acclaimed role as the antagonist in Kill) does a splendid job. He gets the accent right and his sincerity is evident. Kritika Kamra gets a meaty part and holds her own as a upright officer. Dhairya Karva,  if the brief was to play a one note 90's bollywood cop with limited expression,  he gets it bang on 😀. He could have been more nuanced in his acting, given that his character goes through a lot of different situations.  

Harsh Chhaya is irritating as the foul mouthed condescending cop (he has always played such roles). There are other who get a limited screen time , but play key parts (without spoiling any further) quite well.

Technically the Cinematography (mostly low light)  and music and score  are ok without being great - few couplets play in the quieter moments of the show, without altering the pacing. 

This show demands your attention - not the type to be browsing your phone while watching. Not too much of fluff ( no gratuitous sex or  violence). Only  thing i found odd was the  forced slanguage which I  felt inaccurate in nativity.  If you like the genre of police procedurals, this one is certainly worth your time - It has a great story idea, compelling performances by the leads, well paced and edited.  This could well be Zee5's "Asur"