Duranga review:  Remaking a thriller is always tricky. A considerable number of viewers are already aware of what's going to happen. So when it comes to Duranga, I had apprehensions having watched the original Korean drama series it is based on, titled Flower Of Evil. Despite a far better ending, Duranga's loyalty to the original for the most part limits its reach. Duranga Teaser: Drashti Dhami Is Being Fooled by Her ‘Perfect’ Husband Gulshan Devaiah in This Hindi Remake of K-Drama Flower of Evil (Watch Video).

Sammit Patel (Gulshan Devaiah) is the husband every woman wants. He cooks, cleans, takes care of the kid and loves his cop wife Ira (Drashti Dhami) a lot. But all that is just a show. He is, in fact, Abhishek Banne, the son of a serial killer, Bala Banne (Zakir Hussain), trying to distance himself from his and his father's murky past. Everything about him is a pretence be it adoring his kid to even breaking into a smile. His perfect life of 17 years goes for a toss when Ira's cases lead to him.

Given the fact that Duranga faithfully trails Flower Of Evil's execution, things happen fast without any meandering. Sammit's dual life is established in the first episode itself, giving him enough time to project it on the viewers. Other characters too are quite interestingly developed and mapped across the series, everyone appearing at the right moment.

Where Duranga infuses new sensibilities is it doesn't follow the same graph for Ira and Sambit's relationship as the original. In the Kdrama, they are shown to be very intimate, often disturbing the flow of the show. In fact, their scenes have the familiar kdrama cliches of slow motion and soft lighting. Here, it's much restrained and the story gains from it. While you are amazed at the way he is handling his married life, you are also baffled by his killer side (literally speaking). Creator Goldie Behl and writer Charudutt Acharya have also included a few Indian quirks in the tale and those are interesting.

Flower of Evil is 16 episodes long while Duranga has 9 episodes with a promise of a second season. Guess that helped the desi version have a far better season finish than the original. Flower of Evil has a cliched kdrama ending. Duranga scores here with a perfect cliffhanger climax which will smoothly lend to the next season.

But if we don't consider the ending, Duranga is just a rehash of Flower Of Evil, which is available on Netflix, in Hindi. There's no major change in the narrative. One of the key elements of Sambit/Abhishek's existence is that he doesn't feel empathy anymore and despite being a sweet-smiling human to others, his eyes seem dead. This is explored in detail in the original but here it's more of a sidekick.

The narrative doesn't build on the tension. The scene where the journalist goes looking for Abhishek at his workshop and is threatened by him is fantastically done in the original. In Duranga, there's no build-up of the fear, just him torturing the journalist. Some strong scenes to show is maniacal side was needed here. Apart from that, the father-daughter bond in the original lends to some of the most endearing and emotional moments. But Duranga decides to not put any emphasis on it. That robs the series of an emotional connect. That was needed for viewers to connect with him despite being who he is.

Also, the makers have completely ignored Bala Banne's menacing character. In the original, the role was played by Choi Byun Mo and would send shivers everytime he appeared on screen. Zakir Hussain's role didn't even get the scope to attain that viciousness for you to actually feel the intensity of Abhishek's trauma.

Watch the trailer of Duranga

Performances are impressive. Gulshan Devaiah gets the emotions or the lack thereof, just right. But he could have added a bit more in the scenes where he is confused about his feelings towards his family. In the original, the flicker of the same in Lee Joon-gi's face added a lot of depth to the character. Drashti Dhami as Ira is great as she keeps the role restrained. Moon Chae-won is unnecessarily animated in a few scenes in the original. Zakir Hussain is however wasted as no attention is paid in exploring his serial killer habits. Did You Know That Drashti Dhami Was Featured in Saiyan Dil Mein Aana Re Remix Song?.

Yay!

-some Indian sensibilities

-a better ending than the original

-no unnecessary intimate scenes

Nay!

-a little too faithful to Flower of Evil

-A missed opportunity of developing the father-daughter bond

-no character development for the serial killer

Final Thoughts

Wish I could say the end justifies the means in case of Duranga. While the ending is superior to Flower of Evil, overlooking some important sub-plots stops it from being better than the original. Duranga streams on ZEE5.

Rating:2.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 19, 2022 10:34 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).