Gyaarah Gyaarah Review: Thrilling Series Stumbles in the End

Coming to Zee5 as the Hindi adaptation of the popular 2016 K-drama Signal, Gyaarah Gyaarah is a fantasy thriller series showcasing a disillusioned but talented criminal profiler Yug Arya who finds a mysterious walkie-talkie among a discarded pile of evidence of old cases and comes in contact with Shaurya Anthwal, who was an inspector in 1990. Forming an unwitting team, the two of them solve previously unsolved cases with the help of Vamika Rawat. However, changing the past has unexpected consequences on the events of the present and future.

The series has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 45 minutes.

Gyaarah Gyaarah Review

Korean drama Signal took the audience by storm thanks to its superbly talented cast including Lee Je-hoon, Kim Hye-soo and Cho Jin-woong and a story that was both emotional and gripping. Zee5’s Gyaarah Gyaarah tries to recreate the magic of the 2016 series but with noticeable changes (if you’ve watched the original) and with an exceptional cast that sells the story in every scene. One of the frequent complaints about the K-drama was its often soapy moments that took away from the thrill of the multitude of cases that the detectives solved together. Thankfully for Gyaarah Gyaarah, it balances its emotions and character backstories in a way that merges seamlessly with the grim murders giving us an interesting fantasy series that you can’t help but root for.

Let’s start with the characters – the series’ three main characters are shockingly effective at making us root for them thoroughly. The protagonist, of course, is Raghav Juyal’s Yug Arya whose determined, analytical but hot-headed approach makes for a solid protagonist. Juyal wowed viewers in Kill and he continues to wow us throughout the 8 episodes of this series. Yug’s past adds to his character development but the makers make sure not to overdo him in any way so that we don’t get overwhelmed with him. Unlike Lee Je-hoon’s Park Hae-young, Yug is more balanced without the quirks which work in his favour.

On the other hand, Kritika Kamra’s Vamika Rawat is jaded due to her past but there’s a softness underneath her hard exterior. We get to see these moments time and time again and the ways in which she stands up for her coworkers makes her a sweet and sometimes annoying watch. Her past with Dhairya Karwa’s Shaurya Anthwal is a little mysterious and some of it is left unsaid but of course, audiences get to know exactly what is going on there, making us wonder what could’ve happened in the past. We see a lot of flashbacks and sequences surrounding their personal lives that add a touch of realism to their characters and don’t just make them out to be these righteous machines whose lives only surround their work. In the midst of figuring out who the killers are and working with the space-time continuum, it’s always nice to have relatable, fleshed-out characters who take the story forward.

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Gyaarah Gyaarah is obviously shorter than its Korean counterpart, resulting in fewer cases to solve for the three detectives and an urgent need to focus on what happened to Shaurya. There’s a conspiracy at play here that opens up in the last two episodes, resulting in us not getting the hang of how the walkie-talkie technology works and why it connected Yug and Shaurya. The dramatic changes that signify something mysterious happening are overexaggerated quite a bit and take away from the shock factor when it comes to the mystery element.

Keeping things confusing works at first when both Shaurya and Yug are trying to figure out their communication and whatnot but it’s a shame that, even in episode 7, we don’t get a breakdown of what’s happening with the sci-fi part. Vamika also seems oddly unavailable for these moments that leave you confused regarding the point of everything after a while. The series loses what could’ve been a moment of bonding and kick-ass crime-solving, with the spooky walkie-talkie being forgotten for long chunks of the episode.

In that respect, the walkie-talkie is all but forgotten for most of Gyaarah Gyaarah‘s runtime and is brought up only when convenient. The series’ main pull should’ve been this mystery device but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Moreover, with only 1 minute to spare, you’d expect both Yug and Shaurya to make the best use of this thing to solve cases. However, for the entirety of the 8 episodes, Shaurya weeps, moans and gets angry when he needs to talk to Yug, wasting time and not giving the audience some much-needed walkie-talkie time. This results in the story feeling unfinished and half-baked and considering we end off on a major cliffhanger, you feel oddly cheated.

However, considering this is adapted from a 16-episode story, 8 episodes wouldn’t have done it justice and I guess this was the most likely outcome.

That being said, I found the two men’s collaborative crime-solving to be quite fun and engaging in bursts and the sequences wherein they are just about to crack the code are tense through and through. However, in these crime-solving moments, Vamika seems to be oddly against Yug and refuses to believe the man who has been insightful and correct most of the time. In spite of showing us that she is always righteous, her character seems to be confused about whether or not she wants to listen to her sleazy superiors or her team who have been nothing but kind to her; it’s so weird.

Final Thoughts

In spite of some really interesting moments that are thoroughly engaging and a fantastic Raghav Juyal who never forgets to steal hearts, Gyaarah Gyaarah feels underexplored and unfinished. The last two episodes are rushed and the fact that we (and Vamika!) get to learn nothing about the walkie-talkie is a crime like no other. Either way, fantasy lovers will find merit here, that is, if the series is able to find its landing in the next episodes.

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