Scoop

After Scam 92 this is another Hansal Mehta Masterpiece. Excellent story telling that keeps you engaged with stellar performances by Karishma Tanna, Zeeshan Ayub, Deven Bhojani, Prasenjit, Harman Baweja and many other class actors. Karishma Tanna proved that she is much more than her glamorous and beautiful looks while Zeeshan Ayub was spell bounding as Imran as well as the pivotal actor in the show. It was great to see the cute Mr. Deven Bhojani from Dekh Bhai Dekh fame after long, Prasenjit did well in a small guest role. Directors like Zoya Akhtar need to learn direction & story telling from Hansal Mehta. Though it's a depressing story, it has a positive ending with redemption from the dark world of news for the lead character.

The series starts off really well and one can definitely say it's coming from the man who made Scam 1992. Hansal Mehta excels in almost every aspect of storytelling especially the tense sequences of interrogation which reminds me highly of the former series.

Casting couldn't have been any better as each and every character delivers one of the best performance of their lives. Zeeshan as Imran would be the most standout performance of all. Special mention to the dialogues and characterisation which is the best written one.

However, it feels Mehta didn't have much content post episode 3/4 and the series seems dragged towards the end.

The 6-episode show captures our attention with its gripping story and sheds light on the harsh reality of seeking the truth. Scoop's compelling plot has everything to make us curious, even if it's not what we desire, it's something we can't overlook. The creators adds entertainment value by taking creative liberties, but disappointingly lacks clear explanations for characters' motivations, leaving viewers to interpret subtly, making a stronger, more definitive ending preferable. Nevertheless, Scoop an essential story that must be shared, reminding the masses that disregarding inconvenient truths is unpleasant to their own narrative.

Reading the many positive reviews and seeing the high average rating, I decided to watch this six episode series, based on true events.

At the end I was left disappointed . A closer look at the reviews reveals that many reviews are from people from India. India not only has a great film industry, but - as it turns out- also an army of people that tend to overrate films from their country.

Scoop does not suffer from poor acting, poor dialogues, sound or cinematography. On the contrary, these aspects are way above average and if they were the only factors to base judgment on, it would probably deserve 9 or 10 stars.

However, at the core of each series lies a story and - most importantly - the way it is told. The true events behind this series could have lead to a great series. However the scenario is a complete mess. The only aspect that remains upright is the tragic story of a journalist who is wrongfully detained. Everything else related to this (corruption of the police, ties between government and criminals etc.) remains largely in some sort of chaotic darkness. Maybe the true situation at the time was very complex. If that is the case then the scenario writer has the task to create some clarity so that the viewer is able to tell in a few sentences what it is about. No way the average viewer would succeed at doing this. There's just a garbage bag full of people, connections, names, events, interests etc., but never will you get the complete picture as a viewer.

For failing to tell the complete story in a clear and accessible way and leaving viewers in the dark as to important facts, I cannot rate this with more than 6 stars., Worse is that because of this failing scenario the case this series wants to make for freedom of press and against corruption weakens.

It still might be worth you while though.

After the brilliance of Scam (the Harshad Mehta series on sony liv), my expectations from this Netflix series were high. It's not quite there, probably because of a different (and less glamorous) plot (nothing comes close to Rags to Riches to crash story of Harshad Mehta). But nevertheless, quite an intriguing series that kept me hooked for the most part of it. The protagonist is a strong impactful character played very well by Karishma Tanna. There were episodes during jail ordeal that were exaggerated and elongated, but other than that a well made series that shows the dark side of journalism. Watch it for the strong performances of Karishma and Zeeshan; and the strong storytelling of Hansal!