You are hooked on The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case from the first episode, applauds Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Sweaty palms, nervousness and a racy heartbeat are signs of a heart attack.
But if you have a healthy heart and still feel that way, it's probably because you're watching The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case.
Based on Anirudhya Mitra's book, Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi's Assassins, the OTT series The Hunt keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
The seven-episode series has the perfect recipe for a suspense thriller and as an audience, you are hooked on to it.
Like Director Nagesh Kukunoor says, 'You think you know about the Rajiv Gandhi assassination story. But you don't.'
The first surprise in the story is that the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) suicide bomber Dhanu (played by Shrutie Jayan) did a dry run of her suicide mission on former prime minister V P Singh on May 7, 1991 in Chennai.
She manages to meet V P Singh at his rally in Chennai, garlands him and then touches his feet.
But she does not pull the suicide belt vest trigger tied to her waist.
Her target was not V P Singh but Rajiv Gandhi who was to attend a rally on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur.
Another revelation in the series was that the LTTE had a backup suicide bomber waiting to blow herself up for Rajiv Gandhi if Dhanu failed.
The first episode of The Hunt begins on a slow note as Kukunoor takes time to build the narrative.
But before you lose interest, Sivarasan (Shafeeq Mustafa), the mastermind of the Rajiv Gandhi killing, makes his entry.
Sivarasan is called the 'One-Eyed Jack' after the Marlon Brando character of the 1961 movie with the same name. He lost an eye when the Sri Lankan army attacked the LTTE base in Jaffna.
Sivarasan, LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's most trusted lieutenant, runs the operation to murder Rajiv Gandhi.
That's when the palpitations start for viewers as the SIT (Special Investigation Team) hunt for Sivarasan begins.
Will Sivarasan escape to Jaffna before the SIT captures him?
Will he bomb the SIT office by placing a bomb in the sambar?
Will Sivarasan succeed in another suicide mission, killing J Jayalalitha?
These questions keep the suspense alive in every episode.
Shafeeq Mustafa depicts evil and cruelty on screen superbly. Not much is known about this actor who has barely 800 followers on Instagram.
But truly, a star is born.
Facing him is another brilliant actor Amit Sial who plays SIT chief D R Karthikeyan.
Sial's expressions, mannerisms and leadership qualities are worth a watch.
He never loses his cool even if the investigation runs into a dead end.
As SIT chief, he uses unique methods to crack the LTTE terrorists arrested after the assassination to reveal information about Sivarasan.
One of the interrogating officers tells the thirsty LTTE terrorists in custody during the interrogation, 'One name will get you a glass of water, two names will get you biryani, revealing Sivarasan's hideout will give you whatever you want.'
Other actors like Anjana Balaji as Nalini, Sai Dinesh as Murugan, Danish Iqbal as Amod Kant and Sahil Vaid as Amit Verma, Shrutie Jayan as Dhanu perform well.
The script -- written by Nagesh Kukunoor, Rohit Banawalikar and Sriram Rajan -- is so taut that there is no time for your mind to wander from the series.
The only downside is that they do not cover the security failure that led to Rajiv Gandhi's killing.
Manoj Mitta's 2014 book The Fiction of Fact Finding: Modi and Godhra blames then CBI director R K Raghavan for security lapses but The Hunt does not explore this angle. Instead, it blames Rajiv Gandhi who disregarded security and allowed Dhanu to come close to him and garland him.
The Hunt is a MUST WATCH.
The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case streams on SonyLIV.
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