Hansal Mehta's 'Scoop' gets chequered glory of Indian journalism right

The first class in journalism in a typical journalism school in India begins with the Watergate scandal, a lesson in the dogged investigative reporting by Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who uncovered a scandal that forced Richard Nixon to step down from the US presidency in 1974. 

In Delhi University's Delhi School of Journalism, my alma mater, a Woodward portrait hangs above an impeccable statement of a former managing editor of the TIME magazine.  

It states: "Journalism can never be silent: That is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air."

In Hansal Mehta's Scoop on Netflix, when Jagruti (played by Karishma Tanna) quite literally runs after a story, she is shown doing her job of speaking up immediately. She is human enough to make mistakes. 

Navigating between the claims of triumph and the signs of horror in the chaotic underbelly of Mumbai's gang wars, Jagruti’s least acknowledged journalistic glory of exclusives doesn't have conventional financial dividends.

The six-episode Netflix series is inspired by former journalist Jigna Vora’s book Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison. The show features actor Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub whose role as Imran Siddiqui appears inspired by acclaimed journalist-editor S. Hussain Zaidi.

Also watch | 'Scoop' director Hansal Mehta: Karishma Tanna was so desperate to prove herself | WION Exclusive

Karishma Tanna as Jagruti Pathak dons Jigna Vora’s hat in the show. With Tanna, this isn’t the first time that Hansal Mehta had the task to get shades of Indian journalism right. He did it last time in ‘Scam 1992’, in which actor Shreya Dhanwanthary plays Sucheta Dalal, the journalist who is credited to have brought the infamous Harshad Mehta scam to the world. The details such as legendary satirist RK Laxman of 'Common Man' fame casually strolling in a newsroom reflected a directorial journalistic clarity perhaps unique to Mehta.

But with Scoop’s Jagruti Pathak into Jigna Vora’s shoes, Mehta has set a benchmark in getting Indian journalism’s chequered glory right. 

Vora spent nearly 10 months in Mumbai’s Byculla prison. She was arrested at the peak of her career in connection with the murder of fellow journalist Jyotirmoy Dey (played by Prosenjit Chatterjee in Scoop) in 2011.

The show also highlights the alleged connections of the underworld with some officials of the Mumbai Police and is a poignant reflection on the gang war between Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. 

Also read | The rise & fall of India's underworld

The real-life Jagruti (journalist Jigna Vora) lived in a cramped flat, had EMIs of her car pending when she was arrested and often struggled to pay her son's boarding school fees, according to Ashish Khetan's cover story on journalist J Dey's murder in which Jigna was an accused.

Then how did she keep on going? 

Is your name beneath a headline, called byline, or face in front of a teleprompter (for news anchors) enough to keep you going even when the realms of this field may appear punishing, if not challenging, to a few fainthearted individuals outside or on the fringes? 

Or is it that sense of self-importance that comes with being an integral factor that becomes a medium of information between people and the powers that be? 

The fact is, like Mehta's Scoop shows, it's simply the passion to tell stories that keeps a journalist going. Many talented young journalists in our lower middle-income nation often let that passion wither away for the legitimate reasons of financial stability. Foregoing that requires courage, the first personality trait one must have to be a journalist in India.
    
It takes months of detention inside the gruelling hardships of a Byculla jail to effectively clamp down a journalist's passion to tell stories, for that courage to turn into indifference for the profession. Months of detention. Nothing less than that. 

Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.