Scoop Review: Karishma Tanna Gives Career-Best Performance in Hansal Mehta's Gripping and Often Contemplative Netflix Series (LatestLY Exclusive)

Scoop Review: After tackling the Harshad Mehta scam story, director Hansal Mehta has turned former journalist Jigna Vora's book Behind The Bars In Byculla: My Days in Prison into a Netflix series. Jigna was charged, and later arrested, in an alleged conspiracy involving don Chota Rajan in the assassination of fellow journalist Jyotirmoy Dey. Except for Rajan and mentions of his rival Dawood Ibrahim, the names of the characters in Mehta's Scoop have been changed for narrative purposes. Scoop OTT Release: Here's How You Can Watch Hansal Mehta and Karishma Tanna's Show Online on Netflix!

So Jigna transforms into Jagruti Pathak (Karishma Tanna), an Eastern Age firebrand journalist and single mother. She is known for her breaking scoops, restless attitude, and unwavering determination to own the headlines, which frequently causes her to spar with her righteous editor Imran (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub). Imran represents the traditional type of journalism in which news is not released until it has been verified from all sources. Jagruti represents the transition from that era of journalism to the present era, where news comes first and verification comes later (or, in many cases, never), and yet, thanks to Imran's insistence on keeping her grounded facts, Jagruti hasn't gone to the dark side yet.

However, pursuing a scoop involving Chota Rajan and a plot to assassinate Dawood Ibrahim threatens to push Jagruti over the edge. When a senior journalist, Jaideb Sen (Prosenjit Chatterjee, who makes quite an impact in his brief screentime), is fatally shot by a couple of assassins on bike, Jagruti has no idea she is about to be sucked into the most turbulent cesspool of conspiracies. Soon enough, she is sentenced to more than eight months in prison, while her own peers run one conspiracy story after another to malign her image.

Watch the Trailer of Scoop:

Despite the fact that Scoop is based on true events that occurred over a decade ago, Hansal Mehta and his writers Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul and Mirat Trivedi allow the series to portray a contemplative look at how journalism is faring today without taking a screechy approach. It also does an excellent job of establishing the prickly, symbiotic relationship between the police and the media, in which each party believes they have the other wrapped around their little finger.

The first half of Scoop was very interesting, as it explored more of the relationship between cops and the media, as well as Jagruti's pursuit of a scandal that would eventually lead to her downfall. Not that the second half was bad; after all, it did deal with the topic at hand, a journalist's allegedly unjust imprisonment for a crime she had no knowledge of. However, those sequences ventured into Criminal Justice territory, frequently invoking familiarity while sacrificing pacing. It is to serve Scoop's misfortune that the Hotstar series had squeezed out the juice of gritty prison dramas with its season after season of diminishing returns. Also in Scoop, some of the interesting supporting characters introduced in the first few episodes are often underutilised here.

For example, the character of rookie Deepa Chandra (Inayat Sood), whose transformation from Jagruti's blindly devoted junior to a backstabbing opportunist on her way to becoming the pliable reporters we are so used to now, had an interesting arc but gets little scope in the final episodes. Nonetheless, these portions elicit a sense of irony when Jagruti becomes an even worse victim of media trial, allowing Mehta to throw daggers at the current state of India's fourth pillar of democracy.

In comparison, the first three episodes had more of a Three Days in Condor and All The President's Men vibe to them that I so enjoyed. Mehta establishes the equations and characters surrounding Jagruti at a brisk pace, from the mysterious victim Jaideb to the creepy, indecisive Crime Branch JCP Shroff (Harman Baweja). Even the scenes that explore her personal life, whether with her young son or with her understanding maternal uncle (Deven Bhojani), help to understand both Jagruti as a person and her overzealous passion for her work, which is tinged with guilt.

It also helps the viewing when Mehta sprinkles some powerful moments in between to remind you of the decaying devolution of journalism these days. When Imran drops the famous Jonathan Foster quote - 'If someone says it's raining and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the window and find out which is true' - it hits you right where it is needed.

The performances are the one aspect of the series that works consistently in both halves. And when it comes to that, I can't help but state strongly that the entire series rests on the shoulders of Karishma Tanna, who gives her career-best performance here, no doubt about it. Karishma Tanna delivers on the three major aspects of her character with much gusto, easily rising to the challenge of making a difficult character so relatable, whether as a fiery journalist with an insistent can-do attitude, a mother compromising on time with her son, or a hapless victim of a stringent law. The rest of the cast is extremely supportive of her.

Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is quite likeable as the principle editor of Jagruti; can't believe we once used to hate him for that role in No One Killed Jessica. Equally likeable is Deven Bhojani as the supportive uncle. Harman Baweja is stiff at places, but overall is quite decent. I am curious as to why he is given a 'Special Appearance' tag in the closing credits, considering the actor had a major role and appears in all the episodes. 'Special Appearance' should have gone to Tannishtha Chatterjee, keeping a fabulous actress like her restricted for brief interludes felt like a crime. Tejaswini Kolhapure, Tanmay Dhanania, Shikha Talsania, Sanat Vyas, Inayat Sood and the rest of the cast are wonderful in their roles.

Final Thoughts

Hansal Mehta continues his winning streak on OTT with Scoop turning out to be a well-made series that is worth watching for its performances, especially from Karishma Tanna, and its insights into the decaying world of journalism. All six episodes of Scoop are streaming on Netflix

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2023 12:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).