Listen to Story We've all got that one friend who shares screenshots of their phone's clock showing '11:11', believed by many to be an angel number capable of creating miracles and fulfilling wishes. This is probably the reason why the makers picked the title Gyaarah Gyaarah (11:11 in Hindi), as the story revolves around this miraculous minute when a character in the present manages to communicate with someone in the past. Given both are police officers, they even go on to help each other solve difficult cases.
The Zee5 series stars Kritika Kamra, Raghav Juyal, and Dhairya Karwa, each playing officers in khaki uniforms. Directed by Umesh Bisht, the series has been inspired by the Korean drama Signal (2016). It is one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history and was based on the 2000 film Frequency.
On paper, Gyaarah Gyaarah is a crime thriller , but it also dabbles with time travel, destiny, and even a tinge of romance—everything that the Indian audience loves. With eight episodes, each around 45 minutes, the series can feel a bit exhausting, particularly in the first four episodes. Unfortunately, the cases are quite lukewarm and predictable, and the pace is faulty as well.
Even with so much going on and the past-present switch with a linear timeline, the drama is quite thanda . It's probably the performances, especially by Kritika Kamra and Raghav Juyal, that hold your attention. Raghav finds his redemption arc playing an upright police officer after playing a vicious criminal in Kill.
Kritika gives a top-notch performance as the boss lady, who is also healing a grieving heart. Dhairya Karwa has the perfect physicality to play a police officer, but he struggles during emotional scenes. Also, because he plays a character in the past, the connection is never fully formed.
Coming to the cases, the show opens with a law being introduced where all cases that have been pending for 20 years would be squashed to relieve the law maintainers. This is when we meet new police recruit Yug Arya (Juyal), who seems to be a genius and an expert at psychoanalysis of criminals. He stands by a grieving mother who has been seeking justice for many years for her child.
Yug witnessed the girl getting kidnapped by a woman, unlike police investigations that zeroed in on a man. As the girl's murder case is set to be quashed in a few hours, Yug and his senior Vamika Rawat (Kamra) give it a last try to solve it. The newbie soon lands upon a walkie-talkie and gets a call at 11:11 pm from Shaurya Antwal (Karwa), another policeman, and together they manage to crack the case of the murderer.
The phenomenon continues for the next few cases too, where they manage to not just find killers but also prove the innocence of a man who was falsely accused and jailed. While the makers did hint at Shaurya's father being a physicist and his connection with watches and times, they never fully explain what caused this miracle. Why and how were Yug and Shaurya connected? Why and how did they manage to communicate? Too many questions, but sadly, no answers.
Also, there are too many clichés in terms of how a police officer or even a suspect behaves. The crime may seem horrifying when narrated, but it has been shot with a novice approach. It's sad that filmmakers still underestimate the audience's intelligence and taste.
Even when adapting a sleek thriller like Signal, they choose to go with a run-of-the-mill drama in the narrative. Overall, while Gyaarah Gyaarah offers a refreshing break from the usual rom-coms, its lack of pace and depth may leave crime thriller fans craving more. Gyaarah Gyaarah is streaming on Zee5.
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