Waiting Hai Review: A Rooted Small-Town Take On the Tatkal Scam

BOTTOM LINE
A Rooted Small-Town Take On the Tatkal Scam

PLATFORM
Amazon MX Player

RUNTIME
4 Hours (7 Episodes)

What Is the Show About?

Sugam Mishra is a newly married railway cop who has just joined duty, juggling pressures at home and at work. He finds a mentor and a father figure in his senior. Afroz Hamza, a hacking enthusiast nursing a heartbreak in college, takes to crime for a living – joining hands with his uncle to do the dirty backend work for travel agents.

Performances

While most films try to milk Divyendu Sharma’s Mirzapur image, a show like Waiting Hai actually showcases his range. As an earnest, newly-married man in his 20s starting a new job, he mirrors the character’s rebellion and idealism with honesty.

Bhuvan Arora is decent as the invisible hacker wronged by the system. One of the more moving portrayals comes from Kumud Mishra as Sugam’s senior on the verge of retirement. The supporting cast – Vijay Maurya, Harshita Gaur, Sunita Rajwar and Dayashankar Pandey – deliver the goods.

Analysis

There are several theories about the creative rot plaguing Hindi cinema in recent years. A primary one is that most stories fail to reflect real India as experienced by an average citizen.

That doesn’t mean every story needs to be a grim, hard-hitting saga. There are many ways to channel mundane realities into creative storytelling, as Waiting Hai on Amazon MX Player does. The entertaining seven-episode show, revolving around a tatkal scam, holds up a crucial mirror to everyday India.

Watching Waiting Hai, you return to a basic question – what makes a story worthy of the big screen or OTT? We tend to grossly underestimate the appeal of earthy, intimate stories about everyday conflicts. What if they actually made it to theatres?

Sugam Mishra and Afroz represent two sides of the system. The former is a newly appointed railway officer struggling to come to terms with the brazen corruption at his workplace. The latter, defeated by the system, takes to illegal tatkal bookings for a quick buck.

Sugam is the man within the system with a clean conscience who wants to set things right. Afroz, ridiculed for his appearance, even offers to be an ethical hacker for the Railways but is denied a chance to take the honest path. For now, they are pitted against each other.

The show primarily deals with the inner workings of the scam. The rot starts at the top and is exploited by travel agents who employ hackers to exploit loopholes in booking portals, denying the common man a fair shot at a hassle-free train ride.

What lingers long after the show are the simple nothings in their ordinary lives. A hot-blooded employee hungry for change is constantly kept in check by a wiser, older colleague. At home, his mother and wife fight for his attention and slowly find a middle ground.

A railway officer struggles to get a tatkal ticket for his own mother. As his mother leaves for her hometown, the newlyweds plan a honeymoon to Goa. Meanwhile, an elderly railway employee has grand plans for his retired life, but loneliness quietly engulfs him.

An alleged criminal who games the system by day writes poems for a new acquaintance online. At home, his reality is about changing his ailing grandfather’s soiled loincloth every day. You see an India where caste, class and appearance dictate your fate, and yet everyone finds a way to survive.

The show effectively showcases the modus operandi of a scam that train passengers experience in varying degrees, weaving a familiar, sugar-coated narrative around it with rooted, relatable characters. It paints an accessible portrait of small-town India and the Railways.

The crime track is let down by lazy writing though. The conflict between the gangster and Afroz could have been built better. Waiting Hai would have been more absorbing if Sugam had to struggle more to expose the scam. It ends a little too easily.

Helmed by Sameer Vidwans, Waiting Hai tackles a real-time issue in the travel industry through a slice-of-life narrative and grounded characters. It neither glorifies its protagonists nor demonises its criminals, but genuinely tries to look at the situations that shape their destinies with empathy.

Music and Other Departments?

Daniel B George’s soundtrack blends smoothly with the narrative, never desperate for attention. Despite ordinary locations, Navagat Prakash’s visuals are compelling. The writing loses steam in the final episodes with convenient resolutions. The editing is largely neat.

Highlights?

– Impressive premise

– Good casting, effective performances

– Relatable characters and conflicts

Drawbacks?

– Poorly written crime thread

– Lazy resolution in climax

Did I Enjoy It?

Yes, because I watched it with limited expectations.

Will You Recommend It?

If you want an alternative take on small-town realities, you may not mind this one.

Waiting Hai Web Series Reviewed by M9 News