Even those ignorant of the inner workings of the media and police would find it scoop Deepa Gahlot praises, “It’s a compelling human drama and the story of the resilience of a woman, her family and true friends.”

An admiring colleague calls them “bulldozers without brakes”.

Jagruti Pathak was a tenacious journalist and the world, then as now, tries to trip up successful women.

Hansal Mehta has captured the Age of Greed in his magnificent series. Fraud 1992 via Harshad Mehra.

He works on his new show with the same care scoop to focus on the time when Mumbai was in the grip of the underworld and the media just couldn’t help but get caught up in the whirlwind of corruption and power games.

A character on the show says the press is the fourth pillar of our society and when that pillar crumbles, the whole structure collapses.

Now that the media isn’t at its best, Mehta is trying to figure out when news became entertainment and press just business.

As the underworld began to gain prominence (a phenomenon documented in numerous films glorifying it). godfather-like glamour), the cops were under pressure, so even encounter killings and gang shootings became compelling subject matter for the media.

It was the time when crime reporting was at its peak.

Jagruti Pathak (Karishma Tanna), based on journalist Jigna Vora, throws herself into the boys’ club on a crime hunt, nurturing street-level contacts with top cops and making front-page headlines in her newspaper. Eastern Agewith its shrewd editor Imran (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) both encouraging and curbing their overconfidence.

Imran is based on S. Hussain Zaidi, who is co-producer of the series and has written several best-selling underworld books, many of which have been made into films.

scoop based on Vora’s book, Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in PrisonWritten by Hansal Mehta, Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul and Mirat Trivedi, it deals with the kind of personal and professional crises that can either overwhelm a person or burnish their luster.

Jagruti comes from a middle-class Gujarati family, is a single mother to a nine-year-old and is fully committed to her career.

One of the few female reporters in town, she’s not afraid to go to seedy bars or slums to meet her informants. She receives special treatment from Deputy Police Commissioner Shroff (Harman Baweja).

Her rise to deputy office manager provokes some irritation from her colleagues, and her aggressive nature does not endear her to them either.

She follows a phone interview with Chhota Rajan, then a rival of Dawood Abraham, who both ran their criminal empires from overseas.

Then Jaideb Sen (Prosenjit Chatterjee), crime reporter from another newspaper, is shot dead (based on the actual killing of J Dey), and Jagruti is arrested as the prime suspect, allegedly because she passed Sen’s information to Rajan and he claimed that she sent him to the killing provoked.

The police have no evidence of their complicity in the murder, but the law is taking its time. While the police flout her indictment, Jagruti spends months in the filthy Byculla prison, where she is brutally harassed on the orders of murdered man Rambha Ma (Tejaswini Kolhapure Sarawat). Matka Operator’s wife who was convicted over Jagruti’s revelations.

later, a Sadhvi (Shikha Talsania), imprisoned for a hate crime, tries to take Jagruti under her wing. Vora wrote about this colorful character.

Jagruti receives the support of her family, especially her grandfather (Sanat Vyas) and her uncle (Deven Bhojani), but her life is shattered.

Imran is by her side enough to quit his job when the bosses demand sensational anti-Pathak stories, but the rest of the press, including her protégé Deepa Chandra (Inayat Sood) and competing newspapers, follow her like vultures and claim that she had an affair with Rajan and Imran.

A tabloid editor (Tannishtha Chatterjee) tells Imran to beware of Jagruti because strong women are not valued, but spreads slanderous stories about her anyway.

Before Jagruti is even found guilty by the court – it took a seven-year battle to prove her innocent – ​​her reputation is ruined and cops like Shroff, who used to welcome her into their offices, are ready to pressure her the bus to save her own career.

scoop is a well shot (Pratham Mehta) and authentic looking show. A little more than a decade has passed, but the appearance of the city and the models of cars and devices have changed rapidly.

Mehta spares no grim detail, and everyone involved in the Pathak slander and gangster scheming is exposed in the best of journalistic tradition.

The characters are based on real people, so those in the know will recognize most of them, and there will be quite a few red faces in the police department – although most are now retired, and a key retired figure has died.

Karishma Tanna easily captures her character’s initial optimism as she dances with abandon at a party or on vacation with her family in Kashmiri, and then explores the emotional depths of a woman braving the betrayal and horrors of a Mumbai prison.

Mehta chose his actors well and they all fit their roles like tailored suits.

Harman Baweja is a pleasant surprise.

Played with solemn dignity by Ayyub, Imran is an absolute hero in the story.

Even those unfamiliar with the inner workings of the media and police would find it scoop captivating as human drama and the story of resilience of a woman, her family and true friends.

scoop Stream on Netflix.

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