It
introduces
random
characters,
goes
on
several
wild
goose
chases
and
is
incapable
of
holding
onto
any
thread
of
the
plot,
sighs
Deepa
Gahlot.
Last
year
there
was
Aakhri
Sach;
there
was
also
an
episode
of
Crime
Patrol
and
a
true
crime
docu
series,
The
House
Of
Secrets
—
you’d
imagine
all
the
shock-and-chill
had
been
squeezed
out
of
the
horrific
Burari
case.
The
gruesome
deaths
of
several
members
of
a
family
found
hanging,
bound
and
gagged,
were
a
crime-solving
nightmare.
Now
there’s
yet
another
series,
Gaanth
Chapter
1:
Jamnaa
Paar
on
the
same
case,
with
some
changes.
The
name
of
the
family
changed
to
Chandel,
the
number
of
deaths
reduced
to
seven,
and
so
on.
A
few
scenes
into
the
opening
of
the
series,
directed
by
Kanishk
Varma,
the
viewer
is
hit
with
the
hideous
sight
of
the
hanging
corpses
shot
from
every
angle.
If
that
didn’t
get
the
heart
sinking,
there
are
close-ups
of
a
dead
dog.
Later
too,
there
are
several
eye-averting,
barf-inducing
scenes
of
mutilated
corpses
and
such,
as
if
the
team
wanted
to
outdo
the
real
incident
and
its
several
screen
versions
in
sensationalism.
‘Restraint
and
good
taste
get
thrown
out
of
the
window.
And
then
there’s
the
big
cop-show
cliché,
the
drunken
police
officer
with
a
botched
case
blotting
his
copy
book,
and
a
troubled
past.
The
man’s
called
Gadar
Singh
here,
and
played
by
Manav
Vij
in
Sardar
get-up,
and
an
unremitting
angry
expression.
He
would
be
understandably
annoyed
because
his
superiors
dump
the
case
on
him,
don’t
give
him
time
to
investigate
properly
and
make
him
the
scapegoat
when
things
go
sideways.
There
is
also
a
journalist,
Sunny
Jha
(Ajit
Singh
Palawat),
who
uses
every
chance
he
gets
to
twist
the
knife
in
Gadar’s
gut.
There
are
other
cops
wandering
around,
but
Gadar
finds
a
sidekick
in
Dr
Sakshi
Murmu
(Monica
Panwar),
who
gets
much
grief
in
the
hospital
where
she
works,
from
‘merit’
students
(she
is
an
OBC
reservation
hire).
She
barges
into
the
room
of
a
kid
who
survived
the
family
carnage,
and
tries
to
help
him.
Sakshi
supposedly
suffers
from
‘savant’
syndrome,
which
means
she
sees
patterns
in
random
words
and
numbers.
Not
clear
in
Chapter
1
how
that
would
help
solve
the
case,
but
mostly
she
stares
at
the
drawings
made
by
the
child,
frowns
and
tries
to
make
sense
of
them.
The
show
(written
by
Soham
Bhattacharyya,
Fahim
Irshad,
Anagh
Mukherjee)
suffers
from
creative
equivalent
of
restless
leg
syndrome;
it
introduces
random
characters,
goes
on
several
wild
goose
chases,
and
is
incapable
of
holding
on
to
any
thread
of
the
plot
or
take
it
to
a
halfway
believable
direction.
Characters
who
seem
to
be
important
are
mysteriously
killed,
clues
are
left
dangling
and
one
noisy
TV
anchor
is
the
only
one
who
even
bothers
about
the
awful
crime.
So
the
glowering
Gadar
Singh
is
unable
to
solve
the
case,
despite
Sakshi
snapping
at
his
heels,
and
a
female
assistant
Satyavati
(Saloni
Batra)
making
sympathetic
sounds
in
chaste
Hindi,
plus
nocturnal
visits
to
a
graveyard.
His
drinking
does
not
cease,
and
to
add
to
his
problems,
he
is
in
danger
of
losing
custody
of
his
daughter,
for
obvious
reasons.
When
Rajesh
Tailang
enters
the
show
as
a
CBI
investigator,
it
looks
like
sparks
will
fly,
but
it
turns
out
to
be
another
damp
squib.
If
Gadar
Singh
is
supposed
to
be
extra
bright
or
even
likeable,
as
a
protagonist
of
a
show
should
ideally
be,
it
is
not
evident
in
eight
episodes.
There
are
murder,
ritual
suicide,
collective
psychosis
angles
thrown
up
and
dropped,
because
after
going
round
in
concentric
circles,
the
case
is
nowhere
near
closed,
so
obviously
a
Chapter
2
is
lined
up!
In
real
life
police
work,
this
tardiness,
working
at
cross
purposes,
severe
lapses
of
judgment
(cremating
corpses
while
the
investigation
is
on!),
and
sheer
idiocy
might
be
par
for
the
course,
but
at
least
fiction
should
make
sense.
Or
try
not
to
be
soporifically
boring
as
well
as
exasperating.
Gaanth
Chapter
1:
Jamnaa
Paar
streams
on
JioCinema.
Gaanth
Chapter
1:
Jamnaa
Paar
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