What Is the Story About?
Netflix’s latest original series ‘Scoop’ tells the story of an ambitious crime reporter, Jagruti Pathak (Karishma Tanna), who is falsely implicated in the murder case of her fellow journalist and thrown into prison.The story is based on the sensational real-life murder of Mid-Day reporter Jyotirmoy Dey, aka J-Dey; and real-life journalist Jigna Vora’s imprisonment after being accused of conspiring with gangster Chhota Rajan in the murder.
Scoop is written by Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul and Mirat Trivedi, and co-written and directed by Hansal Mehta.
Performances?
Scoop is one of the most well-cast shows of recent times. The choice of actors picked to play pivotal roles in the series is sure to surprise even those viewers who feel jaded with the amount of content on OTT these days. Hats off to ace casting director Mukesh Chhabra for the decidedly inventive casting.
Karishma Tanna has delivered the performance of a lifetime in Scoop. She’s simply superb as Jagruti Pathak — whether hustling to get her next newsbreak; or caught in the chaos and turmoil of her sudden incarceration; but most of all when her own utter powerlessness in the face of blatant conspiracy dawns on her.
The actor to watch out for in Scoop, however, is Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub. He simply stuns with his effortless, nuanced portrayal of Jagruti’s upright yet hapless editor. Helplessness and resignation play hide and seek on his otherwise stoic countenance, drawing the viewer into his moral dilemma, making us acutely aware of the burden he has to bear.
The surprise element of Scoop, and masterstroke of sorts, is definitely Harman Baweja as top cop Harshvardhan Shroff. The largely-forgotten actor emerges out of oblivion to deliver a stunning performance full of gravitas and heft, impressing the viewer with his portrayal, despite the grey-hued character he essays. Brownie points to Mukesh Chhabra for plucking the actor out of obscurity, and casting him in a role that seems tailor-made for him.
Prosenjit Chatterjee and Jaimini Pathak make a lasting impact in their short but sharp roles. Both actors lend credence to the characters they’re handed. The rest of the stellar cast, including Tannishtha Chatterjee, Tejasvini Kolhapure, Shikha Talsania, Deven Bhojani, Tanmay Dhanania, Inayat Sood, Ira Dubey, among a host of others, lend formidable support to the narrative in myriad ways.
Analysis
Scoop is easily one of the best shows of the year, beating by miles Netflix’s own other excellent 2023 offering, ‘Trial By Fire’. After ‘Scam 1992’, it is yet another stark, no-frills account from Hansal Mehta, of a real-life story that shocked the nation. The maverick filmmaker has developed an uncanny knack for picking subjects that explore diverse facets of human nature, much beyond the plot at the core of the story.
Like Hansal Mehta’s Scam 1992 before it, Scoop is much more than the human drama at the centre of the narrative. It is a damning indiction of the unholy police-politician-criminal-media nexus in the country, that everyone knows but few dare to talk about, let alone portray it so bluntly and categorically on screen.
But Hansal Mehta is that rare filmmaker who dances to his own tune; who isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. Then who better than Mehta to explore and depict the underlying subtext in the sensational daylight murder of J Dey in so austere a manner on screen, cocking a snook at naysayers and their unspoken diktats to steer clear of controversial topics.
Thus Scoop, like its bold creator, rushes in where most fear to tread – right in the den of corrupt policemen, politicians and of course, the underworld. Last heard, real-life Don Chhota Rajan is itching to get a stay on the streaming of Scoop on Netflix.
That aside, Hansal Mehta’s Scoop reserves its harshest condemnation for the media – the once-honorable but fast-crumbling entity, known as the Fourth Estate, romanticised in popular Indian culture as the Fourth Pillar of democracy. In Scoop, Mehta shows the media as it is, in all its vulturous, rapacious glory – unadorned, unembellished, unvarnished.
Interestingly, Mehta chooses the intriguing character of Deepa (Inayat Sood) to epitomise the sheer rot within the world of journalism and journalists, both of which are utterly devoid of morals or principles, only caring about the bottom line, and snaring the front-page byline.
The world-building in Scoop is excellent. Each episode slowly builds up the tension, only to release it in a flurry of unexpected events that hit the viewer hard and fast. Despite knowing the gist of the story, one is totally unprepared for the way it undulates and unspools in the series. Full marks to the writers and director for capturing events and details as they occurred then, yet keeping viewers glued to the edge of their seats in suspense.
Broadly speaking, too many subplots in a piece of content generally spoil the broth. But in Scoop, even the subplots have lots to tell. Just like Deepa’s track, which we’ve talked about earlier, the subplot involving Ira Dubey reinforces the blatant slut-shaming and slandering that every ambitious, go-getting woman is subjected to at the workplace. It reinforces the notion prevalent in popular culture that a successful woman has simply slept her way up the corporate ladder.
The jail portions perfectly depict the atrocious condition of Indian prisons, along with showcasing how undertrials languish for years in Indian jails even for bailable offenses, merely because they have no counsel to represent them. The court scenes are eye-opening too, as are the newsroom sequences.
Besides all of the above, Scoop also scores in the way it has modelled its reel-life characters around their real-life counterparts. Harman Baweja’s casting deserves mention yet again, for the terrific likeness to real-life top cop Himanshu Roy, who was in charge of the investigations into J Dey’s murder back in 2011. Karishma Tanna’s Jagruti Pathak (Jigna Vora), Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub’s Imran Siddiqui (Jigna Vora’s real-life mentor Hussain Zaidi), Prosenjit Chatterjee’s Jaideb Sen (J Dey) are a few other characterisations that are pitch perfect.
The dialogues in Scoop are another stand-out element of the show. They are sharp and succinct, with no melodrama and over-the-top jingoistic word-play or dialogue-baazi to mar its quality. The use of hard-hitting quotes from real-life characters lends heft to the narrative. That said, the prison portions could’ve been shot in an inventive manner, like the rest of the series, instead of resorting to regular done-to-death tropes.
This reviewer can go on and on about the virtues of Scoop, but let’s just sum up with a final verdict – Scoop is a must-watch series, a winner for Netflix, and one of the best shows this year.
Music and Other Departments?
Scam 1992’s breakout composer Achint Thakkar has scored another superb title track for Scoop. The music is haunting and affecting. Cinematographer Pratham Mehta’s camerawork captures the Mumbai landscape well. Amitesh Mukherjee’s editing is flawless.
Highlights?
Excellent casting
Stellar performances
Gripping story
Sharp dialogue
Deft storytelling and direction
Drawbacks?
Done to death prison tropes
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes
Scoop Series Review by Binged Bureau
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