Duranga review: An awesome adaptation of K-drama 'Flower Of Evil' opens up possibilities!

Gulshan Devaiah is such a superb actor, he just eats up the scenery whenever he appears on screen. Whether he’s Karate Mani (and his evil twin) in Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota or  Guru Narayan in Badhai Do (he’s resplendent in his green suit). Here he plays a serial killer husband of a cop.

This is not me giving away the ‘kahani mein twist’ people. Half the world has watched the Korean show already. The joy is trying to figure out how the female detective finds out that her world filled with domestic bliss is a sham, and how the serial killer covers his tracks and will try his best to not be found out. Will the Indian version of this story work? Will there be scenes with ‘mangalsutra’ and ‘sindoor’ stopping her from doing her duty and getting her husband arrested for murder? Or will she catch the killer, even though it is her husband?

Drashti Dhami is a familiar face on Indian television. From Geet - Hui Sabse Parayi to Madhubala - Ek Ishq, Ek Junoon to hosting TV shows, she has done it all. She has great screen presence with her curly hair and saucer eyes. She looks as good in jeans and a shirt as a detective as in sarees. She emotes with her eyes, but this can sometimes be a handicap, because making her eyes wider seems to be all that she’s doing. As a detective, her relationship with her colleague and junior has been nicely fleshed out, and the boss too treats her with respect.

As a family, Gulshan Devaiyah’s Sammit Patel, Drashti’s Ira Jaykar Patel and their little daughter seem like a wonderful unit. She’s a cop, he’s a stay-at-home husband who is a great cook and an artist who works with metal… They have a daughter who loves the food her father makes.

Uncovering the details for the audience is online journalist Vikas Sarode, who has a column in which he investigates murders. Abhijeet Khandkekar - a Marathi TV star known for playing the husband who has left his traditional wife for a younger ditzier woman in the popular show Majhya Navryachi Bayko (My husband’s wife), among other roles - plays the part of Sarode really well.

The story of a serial killing from 17 years ago that gets connected to current murders is very nicely done. It does not feel outlandish at all. The fact that Sammit looks young in the flashbacks may be the de-ageing technology but Ira doesn’t age at all. Apart from the clothes, she looks just the same.

Also odd is Sammit’s mother, who has a dialogue during a flashback in 2008/9, seems weird: Sammit has no social media presence, she says. Although MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and Twitter were around by the mid- to late-2000s, not having a ‘social media presence’ was not considered remarkable until a little later. That dialogue stood out, but all else was smooth. No fancy catchphrases (‘sometimes I think I’m god’), no strange names (Shakaal, Ghanti and so on), but direct dialogue that was on point. Sometimes that is really important because we don’t need extraneous fluff.

The action scenes (especially the car chase to Srirangwadi) are very well done. The locations are wonderful and the fight scenes are cool too. Thankfully, they are good with the background score. Although K-dramas have OST that become popular on their own, I was glad we did not have extraneous or needless songs in the Hindi version.

The supporting cast has done a wonderful job, and you don't think anything is awful in the show. Although I had one question: the dhaba owner's wife is shown to be pregnant at one point. Three episodes down she's not. Whatever happened to the baby?

Zee 5 has hit the jackpot with this show. This could trigger a trend of production companies seeking K-dramas for remakes. I for one don’t mind this trend at all. As far as the end of this season is concerned, I loved the final reveal. And so will you.