Root among early Ashes arrivals as English touch down in Australia

Highlights

• Waiting Hai turns India's familiar Tatkal ticket struggle into a quirky crime drama
• Divyenndu Sharma and Bhuvan Arora deliver strong performances as a railway cop and a young hacker
• The series loses momentum because of uneven writing and distracting tonal shifts

Waiting Hai takes one of India's most familiar travel frustrations, the struggle to secure a confirmed Tatkal railway ticket, and turns it into a crime drama about technology, ambition and an expanding ticketing racket. Set in Patna, the seven-episode series brings together a rookie railway cop, a technically gifted student and a network of illegal agents. While the premise is engaging and the performances are convincing, inconsistent writing keeps the series from becoming the gripping scam thriller it could have been.

A familiar railway struggle gets a criminal twist

At the centre of the story is Sugam Mishra (Divyenndu Sharma), a newly recruited Railway Protection Force constable who is still learning the ropes of his profession and marriage. Soon after joining duty, Sugam notices something unusual. Ordinary passengers struggle to secure confirmed Tatkal tickets, while certain agents appear to get them with suspicious ease.