Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story
Ratings: 4.5
Episodes: 10
Directors: Hansal Mehta, Jai Mehta
Writers: Sumit Purohit, Vaibhav Vishal, Karan Vyas
Producers: Indranil Chakraborty, Prasoon Garg, Kartik R. Iyer, Priya Jhavar, Priyesh Kaushik, Sameer Nair, Rohit Phale, Deepak Segal
Genre: Crime Drama
Release Date: 9th October 2020
Streaming Platform: SonyLIV
Cast: Pratik Gandhi, Hemant Kher, Ramakant Dayma, Jay Upadhyay, Kartik Krishnan, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Nikhil Dwivedi, Chirag Vohra, Jai Mehta, Sharib Hashmi, K.K. Raina, Rajat Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Anant Mahadevan, Ivan Rodrigues, Mamik Singh, Kavin Dave, Lalit Parimoo, Jaimini Pathak, Anjali Barot, Shadaab Khan, Paresh Ganatra, Vivek Waswani, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Faisal Rashid, Nagesh Bhosale and Sharad Jagtiani
Plot: Just like any other rags to riches story, Harshad Mehta’s story has its humble beginnings. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment, just like most Mumbaikars, in the suburbs of Ghatkopar, a Gujarati dominated area. Mehta belongs to a middle-class family who is trying hard to make the ends meet but is never contented with his life. He has dreamt about living like a superstar and such sky-touching aspirations couldn’t be cramped up in that small house. He fantasized to do something big, something that could change his life forever.
After doing all sorts of jobs, Harshad stumbles upon his gateway to riches, the Bombay Stock Exchange which becomes his golden ticket to super unfathomable success. Given his intellect, shrewdness and his hankering to make quick money, Harshad soon becomes the wizard of Dalal Street.
This is the 80s, and hence the regulatory compliances with respect to the maintenance and running of the stock exchanges were quite ambiguous and crafted in a manner that could be easily tweaked. During this time, BSE functioned like a fish market where big brokers use to crack deals worth millions of rupees. Physical entries were made for all sorts of transactions taking place over the stock exchanges and digitization was still a dream to be true. Mehta understands the gambit in the totality of these physical transactions. He finds a loophole and gets determined to exploit it for his benefits. He starts with small frauds but eventually, the greed gets the better of him.
With his crookedness and conviction, very soon Harshad becomes a big fish of the Dalal Street and inaugurates his own consulting firm named ‘Growmore’. By now, he has mastered the art of milking every opportunity to beat the system to his own benefit. Soon his convoy is joined by big banks and public financial institutions. It all goes as per Harshad’s plan.
But there is a deadline for everything. While Harshad was busy strategizing how to expand his empire, he had made many enemies on the way up there who were onto him. One day one such person tipped Sucheta Dalal (Shreya Dhanwanthary), the Times of India journalist. After being informed by an insider about the missing amount of 500 crores in the books of one of the biggest national banks of the country, Sucheta gets restless and is determined to find the truth. She slowly starts building up her case against Mehta who has no idea what is coming his way.
Then starts the meltdown of the empire of Harshad Mehta that he made piece-by-piece with his blood. All the top agencies of the Government come together to bring him down.
The story is driven from the perspective of Sucheta as her voice-over regularly narrates the parts where she is not present.
Review: While the world stock market is witnessing the most volatile time in a decade, it is an impeccable time to watch a series that showcases the innate talent and shrewdness of one man that took the stock market, the Regulators and the Government of India for a ride in the year 1992.
Yes, undoubtedly we are referring to Harshad Mehta and the recent series that took his life to the screen in our rooms viz ‘Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story’.
Scam 1992 chronicles the life of the Amitabh Bachchan of the Bombay Stock Exchange, Harshad Mehta. The story centers on the overnight fame, and then the fall from grace of Harshad who is a stockbroker. He was involved in a stock market fraud of around 5000 crore which became the darkest nightmare for the Government of India. The series is inspired from the book named ‘The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away’, which was written by Sucheta Dalal, former Times of India journalist and her husband Debashis Basu. This mind-boggling real-life saga is directed by the very talented Hansal Mehta. Pratik Gandhi who has a winning mix of criminality and charisma is the perfect face for the character of Harshad Mehta.
The show is divided into 10 long episodes, which intricately portrays the twelve most vital years of Harshad Mehta’s rise (from 1980-1992). It provides one with a sneak peek into the life of almost each and every character who was a part of the financial gamble of the 90s.
The unique imagination of the writers as well as Hansal is praiseworthy. One peculiar thing that might catch your attention is that Harshad is not outrightly filmed as a sinister or a criminal throughout the series. In fact, on many occasions, the series highlights his heroic qualities.
However, one thing that is missed by the team and which is of utmost importance is that there is no mention of the loss suffered by the retail investors, who suffered the most due to Harshad Mehta’s uninhibited greed.
Overall, it is a thrilling experience to watch this show and it will most certainly keep you on the edge of your seat as and when the knot gets tighter around the lead character.
It is a fun show which is almost like our very own desi version of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.
