Gunaah on Disney+ Hotstar is essentially a revenge story about a man who is betrayed by his girlfriend and unjustly framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Except when this man comes out of jail, his face is completely different, thanks to plastic surgery. The surgeons, of course, made his face ten times more charming and also gave him a chiseled jawline (what a lucky bastard). He is now on a mission to defraud a casino owned by his ex-girlfriend in order to avenge the betrayal.
Exactly why would makers go for plastic surgery—the most dreaded plot-twist in Indian soap opera history (second to generation leap, of course) is beyond this critic’s understanding. The twist is not just far-fetched but silly, to the point it is difficult to take the show seriously after it is introduced.
Gunaah Cast
Gashmeer Mahajani plays Abhimanyu Nayak, a brooding man with a chiseled jawline who arrives at Tara’s casino to settle scores with his ex-girlfriend. Zayd Ibad Khan plays Shiva, Abhimanyu’s pre-plastic surgery version who cuts a pathetic figure in front of his friends. Shiva has no concept of boundaries—his friend-cum-nemesis RJ is a scheming, conniving creep who hits on Tara and casually questions her character in group settings.
Shiva, a former soldier who has fought in the battlefield, obviously lets this behaviour slide. He is a spineless man who is a complete pushover. Surbhi Jyoti plays Tara, who proudly declares that she wishes to continue working after marriage and about 10 minutes later in the same episode, says she wants to live in a bungalow, wear sarees and wait for her husband to come home. There are glaring Inconsistencies in the show and plot.
Gunaah Plot
The writing, too, is weak. The dialogue is amateurish and too on-the-face. Let alone nuance, most characters come across as caricatures—think Gabby, Abhimanyu’s assistant who prances in high heels and asks her boss if he’d like to avail casino’s massage services, even as he wakes up from traumatic flashbacks from his days in prison. The plot is wafer-thin so the cast can do only so much to elevate the show which gets progressively worse and flimsy with each episode.
Gunaah: What Works, What Doesn’t
When Tara (Surbhi Jyoti) and Abhimanyu (Gashmeer Mahajani) finally come face-to-face, she introduces herself as the CEO of the casino. Pray, since when did casinos have CEOs similar to MNCs and corporates? Last I checked, casinos are usually owned and/or run by gaming managers. Besides the inconsistencies in plot, dialogue and motivation of characters, Gunaah generates just about the same curiosity as watching paint dry on a wall.
Each episode ends without generating any intrigue for the next. Emotionally investing in characters is too much to expect. I wondered if I’d even watch the next episode if I wasn’t supposed to review the show. Having cliffhanger endings for episodes is practically a necessity at this point, even more so for shows which air episodes on a weekly basis, like this one. Based on the first five episodes alone, it is safe to say Gunaah is too cliched, melodramatic and uninteresting to watch. If you are feeling saturated with crime-revenge dramas, you might just want to skip this one.
Gunaah is streaming now on Disney+ Hotstar.
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