'Scoop' Web Series Review: That Dey...

Web series SCOOPPlatform NetflixCast Karishma Tanna Mohd Zeeshan AyyubCreators Hansal Mehta Mrunmayee LagooRating 4 5Really therersquos a thin line between a super scoop and something that subsequently makes everyone cringe ldquoOopsrdquo This depends wholly on how crosscheckedresearched the facts are in a journalistic story mdash without rushing into hearsay halftruths in order to mix sufficient masala or simply meet a deadlineThe same can be said for fiction based on a true story Facts elevate it Credibility equally counts for everythingThe series Scoop by Hansal Mehta mdash jointly sharing creatorcredit or byline as it were with Mrunmayee Lagoo mdash is about the murder of Mumbairsquos seasoned journalist J Dey 19552011He was shot dead by contract killers in the posh Hiranandani Gardens in Powai around a square that is now named after Dey himself a first perhaps for a city scribeThis assassination scene is quietly yet dramatically shot in Scoop When he passed on Dey used to be the crime amp investigations editor at Midday Which is the publication yoursquore reading this inGoes without saying this series means a lot to my colleagues Many other characters are inspired by people Irsquove workedinteracted with If you sense any bias therefore it must merely be excused as expectedStill Dey mdash fictionalised as Jaideb Sen Prosenjit Chatterjee Bengalrsquos stalwart and OTTrsquos latest find mdash appears for barely a few minutes over a sixpart series There is a sensitive longshot wholly under a soft background score mdash of doctors announcing his death at the end of first episodeThe show is entirely centred on Jigna Vora mdash named Jagruti Pathak Karishma Tanna in phenomenal form mdash who used to be Deyrsquos competitor in the crime beat at Asian Age called Eastern Age hereVora was charged with abetting Deyrsquos murder mdash by allegedly passing on his personal details to the underworld don Chhota Rajan who in turn ordered the hitShe was lodged for several months in prison The evidence against her according to this series was screamingly circumstantial hence speculative What had really happened Thatrsquos Scoop for you mdash from a particular anglePOVpeg if you willThe detailing that follows never descending to obvious melodrama is a far cry from say the picture Page 3 2005 that similarly surveyed Mumbai tabloid journalism also with the midday newsroom for an obvious nodIf anything this is a fine followup to Hansal Mehtarsquos own Scam 1992 Sony LIV mdash that likewise lenses print reporters on the field working in tagteams of two and looks at the Gujarati middle class sizeable portion of Mumbai through their homes Scam 2020 of course was essentially a biopic of stockbroker Harshad MehtaThe first thing you noticed about that stellar series mdash which is progressively getting common on the OTT scene mdash are relatively lesserknown multiple actors matching the best roles creating an unusual chemistry that audiences had been deprived of with lsquosaasbahusrsquo on network television and herocentric mainstream cinema foreverItrsquos the same with Scoop Take Harman Baweja for example Around the time this series is set Baweja was being foisted as a replacement for Hrithik Roshan for a Bollywood superstar He altogether disappeared from the screen thereafter With him as a cop heading the Mumbai Police crime branch modelled on Himanshu Roy mdash you can tell how we may have lost a great actor insteadYou similarly observe handpicked performers even for walkon parts down to the rando reading the news on TV mdash thatrsquos the YouTube sensation Danish Sait no less Together this tight ensemble mdash Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub as the newspaper editor onwards mdash brilliantly brings out a world believably aliveAt its heart Scoop is about the nexus of politics crime business and news media mdash particularly in a way that they converge in a city like Mumbai The lowlypaid journalist in the middle of all this sometimes looks like Icarus before the powerful sun Because thatrsquos the job isnrsquot itAnd yet if theyrsquore not distantcareful enough it could finish them off completely There is no such thing as a free tipoff The fine balance between lonewolf and mouthpiece is hard to maintainThe protagonist Jagruti Pathak is a star crimereporter Which chiefly entails access to top cops and surely the relevant criminals too Being in an English language newspaper over regionalHindi press in Mumbai substantially helps This is strangely true whether you cover politics or popcultureBeing a woman doesnrsquot help mdash if you have to constantly fight off sexual rumours to explain professional success Her rise depends on stringing sources leads landing exclusives Page One is the daily holy grail What if the tables turn She finds herself getting eaten by the same headlinehunters she would once compete againstThe humiliation is complete She was after all booked for organised crime In the same way that so many journalists have been tried for terrorism for reporting news It is relevant analogies and insights like these that lift Scoop from simply a story of Deyrsquos deathAlso ReadThe Boogeyman movie review Generic and oldfashioned lsquonotsoscaryrsquo movieA lot like the subjects he covered Dey himself was a mysterious kinda figure By 2010 or so Irsquod read his crime columns wondering if the Bombay underworld seemingly longdead was only in his head This is of course before his tragic frightening demiseScoop offers an alternate theory to his murder Itrsquos based on Vorarsquos book Behind Bars in Byculla mdash on the price of her time in jail Itrsquos more a deepdive into the crime reporting scene than Orange is the new BlackCanrsquot wait for my colleagues to watch this firstrate series so we can animatedly discuss it at the Press Club mdash now thatrsquos the bar we can afford Itrsquos not as posh as in this show Neither are the suited scribes

'Scoop' Web Series Review: That Dey...

Web series: SCOOP
Platform: Netflix
Cast: Karishma Tanna, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub
Creators: Hansal Mehta, Mrunmayee Lagoo
Rating: 4/ 5

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Home / Entertainment / Web Series / Article / 'Scoop' Web Series Review: That Dey...

'Scoop' Web Series Review: That Dey...

Web series: SCOOPPlatform: NetflixCast: Karishma Tanna, Mohd Zeeshan AyyubCreators: Hansal Mehta, Mrunmayee LagooRating: 4/ 5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Web series: SCOOP
Platform: Netflix
Cast: Karishma Tanna, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub
Creators: Hansal Mehta, Mrunmayee Lagoo
Rating: 4/ 5