Waiting Hai Review: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Waiting Hai is an engaging, well-performed series that turns a genuinely relatable everyday frustration, the struggle for confirmed railway tickets, into a gripping story of corruption and ambition, anchored by strong work from Divyenndu and Bhuvan Arora.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Platform: Prime Video, MX Player
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Episodes: 7
Creator: Sameer Vidwans
Cast: Divyenndu, Bhuvan Arora, Kumud Mishra, Harshita Gaur
Anyone who has ever refreshed the IRCTC app hoping for a confirmed ticket knows exactly how frustrating India’s railway reservation system can be.
Waiting Hai, the new series from Divyenndu and Bhuvan Arora, takes that everyday struggle and builds a genuinely gripping story around the scam operating quietly behind it, one that exploits the very people standing in line for hours just trying to book a simple ticket.
The story follows Sugam Mishra, played by Divyendu, a newly appointed constable in the Railway Police Force who is also trying to navigate a fresh marriage to Princy, played by Harshita Gaur.
Sugam wants to do his job honestly, but the system and his own seniors consistently make that difficult, leaving him frustrated with how he is treated at work.
Guidance comes from his mentor Pramukh Tripathi, played by Kumud Mishra, as Sugam slowly starts noticing that something is deeply wrong within the ticket booking system.
Running parallel to Sugam’s story is Afroz Hamza, played by Bhuvan Arora, an IT student with serious computer skills who gets pulled into trouble after trying to impress his classmate Kitty. When Kitty convinces him to hack the ticket booking site to secure tickets for her family, Afroz reluctantly agrees, only to be humiliatingly betrayed and beaten by her friends once he has served his purpose.
That betrayal pushes Afroz toward a darker path, as he teams up with his uncle Faizal, played by Vijay Maurya, and local strongman Bhoora Bhaiya, played by Yashpal Sharma, to build an entire network of ticket booking agents running the scam. As Sugam grows more suspicious, the story builds toward his hunt for the real mastermind behind the operation.
Director Sameer Vidwans, known for films like Satyaprem Ki Katha, does genuinely strong work here, capturing the real frustration behind India’s ticket booking system with real authenticity.
The writing team behind the screenplay keeps things engaging throughout, blending drama, emotion, romance, and thriller elements in a way that rarely lets the pacing drag, even if a few moments occasionally pull focus away from the show’s central subject.
Performance-wise, Waiting Hai is genuinely strong across the board. Divyenndu delivers an outstanding performance as Sugam, fully inhabiting the emotionally conflicted RPF constable with real conviction.
Bhuvan Arora is equally compelling as Afroz, commanding attention in nearly every frame and handling his character’s gradual transformation from innocent bystander to scam mastermind with impressive smoothness.
Kumud Mishra brings real emotional weight to the story with minimal dialogue, proving once again why he is such a reliable scene-stealer.
The supporting cast, including Daya Shankar Pandey, Yashpal Sharma, Vijay Maurya, Harshita Gaur, and Sunita Rajwar, all contribute solid, memorable work throughout the series.
While Waiting Hai is not without its flaws, none of them significantly disrupt the show’s overall pacing or storytelling. Across seven episodes, the series builds a genuinely engaging story out of a subject most Indian audiences will immediately recognize and relate to, making it a solid binge-watch pick for the weekend.
If you’re curious what the cast may have earned for this project, we’ve put together a breakdown of the Waiting Hai cast fees and estimated series budget. And for more on what else is worth streaming this week, our review of Slow Horses Season 6 and review of Neagley, the confident new Reacher spinoff, are both worth a look.