‘Scoop’ review: Hansal Mehta’s series puts a spotlight on journalism and real-life crime

New Delhi: Jagruti Pathak (Karishma Tanna), a motivated journalist and the main character of Hansal’s brand-new series, Scoop, has her situation expertly transformed. Though equally arrogant and self-centered as Harshad, she is ideologically and morally better than him, amassing front-page bylines rather than financial wealth. It’s a specialized hustle that doesn’t pay well.

Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison is based on the memoir of former crime journalist Jigna Vora. It all starts in 2011, when Jagruti, a stand-in for Vora, receives information about a gang-related shootout in Mumbai. Her brightest and fiercest contemporary is Jaideb Sen (based on Jyotirmoy Dey and played solemnly by Prosenjit Chatterjee), who casually informs her about a broader conspiracy involving gangsters and politicians.

Jaideb is shot by Rajan’s sharpshooters in a horrific early morning incident that concludes the first episode (J. Dey was assassinated in a similar manner outside his Powai apartment). Jagruti seems unconcerned that a former colleague who was covering the same beat was murdered in cold blood. Instead, she goes quickly, debating theories about the murder even while her editor, the more emotionally disturbed Imran (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), encourages prudence and restraint. Jagruti’s world is soon turned upside down. A tape of Rajan saying on the phone that Jagruti pushed him to murder Sen has surfaced. She is arrested and placed in judicial custody under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Scoop, written together by Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul and Mirat Trivedi with dialogues by Karan Vyas, blends many genres: jail, trial, and newsroom drama, conspiracy thriller, real crime, and investigative mystery.