Scam 1992- The Harshad Mehta Story Review: OG bad-boy billionaire!

Scam 1992 The Harshad Mehta StoryOn SonyLIVDirector Hansal MehtaCastPratik Gandhi Shreya DhanwantharyRatingHansal Mehta has directed this series on Harshad Mehta Unsure if theyre related pretty sure Hansal mustve been confused with Harshad as a slip of tongue for their similar names forever Also helps if Im not mistaken both Hansal and Harshad are Bombayites of Gujarati descent which allows the former a certain nuancepeek into the latters life for a biopic series that could be lost on a casual researcher quite possibleWatch the trailer right hereWhich isnt to suggest that enough isnt already known about Harshad Mehtamdashperhaps the only stockmarket broker that regular Indians had ever heard of since he came on the scene And still the bestknown Big Bull even when hes no more I was of course a kid unversed in economics when the securities scam centred on Harshad broke in 1992And yet there are two images that sort of define Harshad for me like for many others still One was him posing against his swanky Lexus sedan for an India Today magazine coverstory This series charts his rise to that pointThe other is the infamous press conference clip brought to Indian homes by the videomagazine Newstrack if I recall right where Harshad and his lawyer Ram Jethmalani pulled out a large suitcase to prove that you could indeed stuff Rs 1 crore into it That is what Harshad had allegedly paid as protection money to the then Indian Prime MinisterScam 1992 over ten episodes and nine hours patiently decodes this fallmdashin what effectively turned out to be the biggest scam in Indias stockmarket history Heres another thing for GenZmillennials to munch on The word scam itself was used first in Indian journalese for a financial fraud with due to respect to Harshad Mehta alone Its a clicheacute nowIn the same way that every political scandal since Nixons Watergate has been called some gate or the other or all mainstream movie industries after Hollywood get a wood suffixed to their first alphabetSpeaking of which this is not a typically HollywoodBollywoodKollywood kinda series Remarkably engaging yet understated shorn of filminessflamboyancemdashwith a subtle plus striking background score pithy but powerful lines and a smart production design that naturally captures the unchanged landscape of South Bombaymdashthe portrait of Harshad Mehta that emerges through the series is a lot closer to how he wouldve actually been fitting into the times that were achanginTotally opposite of say a cokesnorting Leo in Wolf of Wall Streetmdashhes a teetotaler vegetarian quietly scheming numbercruncher whose idea of a party is Thums Up served with a Bachchan song It is the reality for a lot of Indias top businessman why even politicians They derive their high from something greaterdangerousunknowndivine perhaps One could argue that the script ends up humanising the crook Harshad Mehta in return But then he was human noFor a wider theme Scam 1992 seems pitched as more of an insideroutsider storymdashset in the gated markets once controlled by the old elite Its the same worldview that framed the fairytale biopic of another middleclass hero from the same timelinemdashDhirubhai Ambani in Mani Ratnams Guru 2007 with Abhishek Bachchan as Ambani Sr Bachchan Jr Im told is also slated to play Harshad Mehta in a forthcoming biopic The Big Bull which I cant imagine being similar to thisFor inspiration this one draws more from another journalistic procedural All The Presidents Men 1976 on the aforementioned Watergate scandal if you may Given that The Times of India reporter Sucheta Dalalmdashchasing leads to a scam through all its complicated financial jugglery and a star sourcemdashforms a parallel point of view The series is chiefly based on Dalal and Debashish Basus book of roughly the same name As stories go this is the sort that one instantly dubs as ballsy or boldBecause it doesnt once shy away from naming names Actually it does oncemdashnaming Apollo Tyres Polo Steel Which is mildly unfair for all the other dirty linen being washed on screenmdashfrom crooks at Citibank CBI SBI UTI all through the corporate maze into favoured stocks namely SPIC ACC ONGC Coal IndiaWhat you see is what you get Making this appear to me as a muchawaited respectful age of intelligent television which unsurprisingly also coincides with a golden phase for discovering gems for acting talentsmdashseries after seriesIn this case the disarmingly natural leads Pratik Gandhi as Mehta Shreya Dhanwanthary as Dalal to start with but stretching across to the entire ensemble cast curated with such precision and caremdashHarshads brother Ashwin their wives the bears of Dalal Street the suits in Bombay bardrooms the babus from DelhihellipThey keep you hooked with their casual charm cool patois in whats a detailed financial proceduralmdashnever deviating from the main stock of trade at no moment overwhelming you with jargon Unsentimental thoroughly rigorous in its aim to be authentic and as they say for novels now true for a series such as thismdashunputdownable Well done Mr Mehta clearly topped Aligarh his previous best Just so you know which Mehta Im talking aboutCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news