'Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery' Web-Series Review: Karan Tacker and Kalki Koechlin's horror-thriller inspired by true events will shock you

Cast: Karan Tacker, Kalki Koechlin, Saloni Batra, Danish Sood, Shubham Choudhury, Nimisha Nair

Director: Robbie Grewal

Language: Hindi

Gaurav Tiwari is the man who may have seen in shows and television news channels. He was described as the nation’s first paranormal investigator. It was the faithful July 2016 when he died under mysterious circumstances. The immediate cause of death that was reported was asphyxiation. But as the police investigation deepened, it was reported that it was death by suicide. His financial strain made him take the drastic step. But this was also just a conjecture. It was a mystery left unanswered. And there is a new web series that attempts to tell his story wrapped in a horror narrative. The series is called Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery .

Gaurav Tiwari is played by actor Karan Tacker. And he essays and embodies the role with restrain. There’s palpable ache in his body language as the series progresses and we see him getting plagued by the world he chose himself. The show begins with real life footages of his encounter with demonic spirits and his attempts to dig deeper into the world of paranormal. The first scene opens with his body in the hospital and two doctors discussing how it all happened. And then we move to a flashback a decade before he passed away. It’s June 2006 and a bunch of friends are trying to call a spirit. Director Robbie Grewal has tried to lace the show with some humor. So one friend suggests they should try to call the spirit of Kishore Kumar as he has never met him. But it all gets complicated and chilling post this.

What works for the show is how carefully it crafts a story around a man who existed for real, and who also experienced the paranormal for real. You will not be able to suspend your disbelief while watching the series. It’s too contagious to be left midway. It’s a show that forces you to binge watch it because of the story that it is trying to tell. And what works are the performances that blend nicely with the murkiness of the plot. Kalki Koechlin is an actress who is always fun to watch. She happens to be one of the most unafraid performers in Hindi film industry.

She has been a part of the Hindi film industry for the last 16 years, and made some truly commendable choices. What makes Kalki stand out is that she never tries to stand out. And this web series is the best example of that. And Karan Tacker gets into the nuances of the late paranormal investigator. This is a performance that is rightfully restrained, devoid of any histrionics. But the one aspect that stands out in the show is the camerawork and cinematography. It is not easy to re-create what has already happened before, especially if it happens to be eerie and spooky.

The web series has been given the perfect name. Bhay. In most of the horror movies that have been made in Hindi cinema, there is always one question that happens to be common- Do you believe in ghosts? But there are no such questions this time around. Because this show is about a man who has experienced this for real. It’s a show that jolts you and forces you to think twice before saying ghosts do not exist.

Rating: 3.5 (out of 5 stars)

Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery is now streaming on Amazon MX Player