Pritam And Pedro Review: Arshad Warsi And Vir Hirani’s Charm Lifts A Middling Cyber Mystery Above Its Flaws | Web-series News

Last Updated:July 03, 2026, 07:10 IST

Pritam and Pedro is an entertaining cybercrime thriller that doesn’t always hit the mark, but Arshad Warsi and Vir Hirani’s chemistry makes this six-episode series a breezy binge.

Arshad Warsi, Vir Hirani Bring Heart To A Middling Cyber Mystery.

Pritam and Pedro Review: Not every thriller needs layers upon layers or twists that make you rewind. Pritam and Pedro, streaming on JioHotstar, seems to know that about itself. It isn’t trying to reinvent the crime genre, it’s a fast paced, six episode mystery that mixes humour, emotion and a bit of social commentary, and mostly gets away with it on charm and pace alone. The writing is far from the smartest part of the show, but the performances and brisk storytelling carry it through.

The story follows Pedro (Arshad Warsi), a police officer banished to the cybercrime cell as punishment, even though his heart still belongs to the Crime Branch. He’s also grappling with the loss of his young son, a grief that has left his marriage to his wife (Mona Singh) strained. When a minister’s son, addicted to a dangerous online game, goes missing, Pedro spots his chance to prove himself and earn his way back to the department he actually wants.

To better his odds, Pedro teams up with Pritam (Vir Hirani), a gifted young hacker chasing a personal mission: finding his late grandfather’s stolen tape recorder, which holds a recording of his grandmother’s voice. After Pritam helps Pedro crack an ATM heist worth lakhs, Pedro agrees to use his resources to help track down the recorder. What starts as a transactional favour grows into a proper partnership, as the two dig into the kidnapping and stumble onto buried secrets and a sprawling cybercrime network. At the centre of it all is Martin (Vikrant Massey), a hacker whose choices end up driving most of the plot. Along the way, the show touches on cyberbullying, hacking, gaming addiction and the broader dangers of the internet for children, themes that feel timely, even if the series only really skims their surface.

That’s where the writing shows its limits. The script keeps things simple and doesn’t strain to be clever, juggling a crime mystery, emotional backstory and a social message all at once, and not always successfully. A few twists land more conveniently than convincingly, occasionally tipping into unintentional comedy, and some of the emotional beats needed more room to breathe than they’re given. There are good ideas scattered through the show, but it rarely pauses long enough to dig into any of them properly.

And yet, somehow, Pritam and Pedro never really drags. The six-episode length keeps things moving briskly and there’s barely a stretch where the story feels stuck in place. Once you stop expecting a tightly plotted cyber thriller and just go along for the ride, it’s an easy, enjoyable watch with just enough suspense to keep you hooked till the end.

Arshad Warsi is right at home here. He slides into Pedro with the kind of ease that comes from years of practice, balancing the character’s wit with the weight of a father carrying unbearable loss. Even when the script lets him down, he keeps you watching.

Vir Hirani makes a confident, likable debut as Pritam. There’s nothing forced about his performance, he keeps it breezy and natural, never seems to be trying too hard, and still does full justice to the role. He brings an easy charm that makes Pritam instantly likable, and shares genuinely fun chemistry with Warsi, their back and forth is probably the show’s biggest strength. He looks slightly out of his depth in a couple of the heavier emotional scenes, but for a first outing, it’s a remarkably assured one and a promising start.

Vikrant Massey, despite limited screen time, makes Martin feel suitably mysterious and menacing. The show also sneaks in a few blink-and-you-miss it cameos that are a nice surprise.

Mona Singh does what she can with a thin role as Pedro’s wife. The early episodes hint that she will have more to do, which makes it a bit of a letdown when her arc gets sidelined as the story locks in on Pedro and Pritam instead, a waste of an actor who clearly deserved more.

Pritam and Pedro isn’t the smartest cybercrime drama out there, and it knows it. What it offers instead is an easy binge with enough heart, twists and entertainment to keep you hooked, plus a timely reminder of just how dangerous the internet can be. It won’t stay with you long after the credits roll, but as a fun weekend watch, it does the job.

About the Author

Shreyanka Mazumdar

Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment wo…Read More