Perhaps it was high time such a story was told. A ghost-hunter has been murdered. Who did this ghoulish act? Was it murder by a human being? Or….?!

A tale with a welcome difference, Bhay: The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery is narrated when Gaurav, who has made it his lifetime passion to unearth (if that’s the term!) ghosts, is suddenly dead.

What’s even more interesting, and if I may employ the word “scary”, is that lead actor Karan Tacker plays a real-life paranormal investigator named Gaurav Tiwari. The series is based on his actual cases and the notes he made, though obviously dramatization had to become a part of the narration. The series incorporates some real paranormal footage, including of Gaurav himself. 

One day, as a trainee pilot, he is about to die in a plane crash when the spirit of a dead pilot helps him out. Gaurav is taken aback by this episode and his superiors refuse to accept his version that he was helped by a spirit and that is the end of his career in that line. Gaurav returns to India and decides to become the country’s first paranormal investigator. He establishes the Indian Paranormal Society (IPS) to study hauntings, UFOs and more. Soon, he forms a dedicated team with Megha (Saloni Batra), Siddharth (Danish Sood) and Raj (Shubham Chaudhary). 

The team travel all over the country to solve paranormal cases. 10 years later, on July 7, 2006, Gaurav Tiwari dies under mysterious circumstances by hanging himself. The spirited (!!) Irene Venkat (Kalki Koechlin) decides to write a book on him as the IPS members realize that Gaurav’s death is linked to one of their past cases. 

The eight-episode series veers into fresh zones for a horror buff and that makes the whole drama gripping, but for the as-always open end.

Karan Tacker is fantastic as Gaurav. Kalki Koechlin keeps on evolving as an actress by the film. Saloni Batra, Danish Sood and Shubham Chaudhary impress. Nimisha Nair as Dr. Niharika scores in a small role. Adarsh Marathe as Bachuaa) is great, and the rest of the cast do well.

The ghosts do not look very frightening and that is some kind of a drawback. Otherwise, Arshad Syed’s script is well-written and Robbie Grewal sinks his teeth into the subject in his direction. Technically skilled, Bhay… has a standout factor: the background music by Sangeet and Siddharth Haldipur is brilliant and innovative.

This one is great fare for horror buffs hunting for something new in this genre.

Rating: ***1/2

Amazon MX Player presents Almighty Motion Pictures’ Bhay: The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery  Produced by: Prabhleen Sandhu & Shalini Thackeray  Directed by: Robbie Grewal Inspired by ‘Ghost Hunter Gaurav Tiwari: The Life and Legacy of India’s Foremost Paranormal Investigator’ by Abhirup Dhar Written by: Arshad Syed  Music: Sangeet & Siddharth Haldipur Starring: Karan Tacker, Kalki Koechlin, Saloni Batra, Shubham Chaudhary, Danish Sood, Nimisha Nair, Sonal Jha, Babla Kochhar, Adarsh Marathe, Chinmaya Sharma & others

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