Bhay – The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery Review: Karan Tacker and Kalki Koechlin in an 'outdated' paranormal series that struggles to scare

Bhay – The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery Story: Bhay: The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery is a new Indian web series on Amazon MX Player that follows the real-life, mysterious death of India's first certified paranormal investigator, Gaurav Tiwari, played by Karan Tacker. A sceptical journalist (Kalki Koechlin) investigates his life and suspicious passing, and uncovers layers of his paranormal pursuits.

Bhay – The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery Review

Real-life supernatural horror stories exploit deep human fears (death, the unknown), providing psychological thrills and emotional processing. The "real life" aspect adds authenticity, making the strange phenomenon closer and more believable than pure fiction, explaining why stories of haunted places or personal encounters resonate so strongly. One such series is Bhay: The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery. Based on the real-life paranormal investigator Gaurav Tiwari, whose mysterious death made several headlines back in 2016. The truth behind his death is still unexplored fully, as the police ruled it a suicide by hanging, despite public speculation of paranormal involvement.

Starring Karan Tacker as Gaurav Tiwari, the series begins with a solid horror environment when Gaurav decides that he will leave his commercial pilot job and become a paranormal investigator. Thus, he founded the Indian Paranormal Society (IPS) to scientifically study hauntings, UFOs, and the unexplained. Soon, he is joined by more people, making the IPS a strong foundation to solve paranormal activities. 

The series garnered a lot of attention because it is based on the real-life mysterious death of Gaurav Tiwari, and naturally, it was expected from the series to showcase how he led his life surrounded by paranormal activities, but sadly, the series does not stand out. The whole series is proof that some real-life incidents are better left off-screen. 

As a lover of horror movies and series, I find this series a little childish because the ghosts absolutely do not look scary at all, even if you watch it late at night with all the lights off. The series has 8 episodes, and each episode shows Gaurav solving paranormal cases along with his team, but the stories hardly scare you because in this era of so many amazing horror stories, it was expected that Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery would have some wonders as well. 

Also Read: Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery OTT release date: Here's when and where you can stream Karan Tacker and Kalki Koechlin's supernatural investigative thriller

The series indeed has real-life footages of Gaurav Tiwari, which make the series somewhat interesting in bits and pieces. While the series fails to showcase the real sentiments of Gaurav Tiwari's paranormal cases, we cannot judge how Gaurav actually spent his life and what went through his mind because some things are better left unexplained to retain the authenticity. 

Gaurav's ability to read ghosts was fine until Irene (Kalki) also started to see her ex-boyfriend in her dreams, making it a bit baseless. When the series carries such a heavy topic, the makers needed to make sure the execution was perfect. Genuinely, I expected the series to unfold more about Gaurav's personal life rather than him solving the supernatural cases. 

To be honest, right from Karan Tacker, Kalki Koechlin, to Saloni Batra, and others, everyone has done a good job, but when the execution fails, the actors alone can't save it. Supernatural horror thrillers work better when you blend scares with deeper themes about morality, existence, and societal anxieties in an exciting, escapist way, which Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery clearly does not have. But if you are an ardent horror fan, try watching it once.

Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery Verdict

While Bhay - The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery has an interesting premise, based on the real-life mysterious death of paranormal investigator Gaurav Tiwari, it fails to deliver an engaging horror experience. Actors including Karan Tacker and Kalki Koechlin deliver good performances, but the execution fails to bring out the brilliance of their acting. The ghosts aren't scary, the cases lack suspense, and the emphasis on paranormal investigation overshadows the potential for deeper explorations into Gaurav's personal life. The real-life footage adds a little interest, but overall, the series struggles to captivate or terrify.