Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story is based on a book written by Debashis Basu and her wife, an ex Times of India journalist Sucheta Dalal which shows a startling rise and drastic fall of a controversial stockbroker who became the face of 1992 scam of Rs. 5,000 crore which shocked the nation to the core.
Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story web series starts with a usual rag to riches story. Harshad lives in a one-room apartment in Ghatkopar, Mumbai. The Mehtas are like every regular Indian family. However, Harshad’s dreams are very big and after doing all kinds of jobs he realises that Bombay Stock Exchange can make him successful.
He is a smart and shrewd person who becomes a Dalal Street wizard and can play with the market for his profit. This was the time in the 80s when BSE was like a fish market where jobbers were hired by big brokers for cracking big deals for them.
Digitisation came in much later which meant that all entries were done physically which brought in many loopholes in the system which could be exploited. Harshad starts as a Jobber and soon opens his own consultancy firm Growmore and starts exploiting every opportunity in the market for his benefit.
He manipulates some big banks in getting quick rich schemes by bribing corrupt officials. As Harshad starts rising, a Times of India journalist Sucheta Dalal is after him but getting evidence against him is very difficult. The story is told from her perspective as her voice-over narrates the part where she is not present.
The actors featured in the lead role in the series grant authenticity to it. Whether it is Satish Kaushik as Manu Mundra or Anant Mahadevan as RBI Governor Venkitaranjan or Nikhil Dwivedi as Citibank’s treasurer A.S. Thiyagarajan or Rajat Kapoor as a straightforward CBI officer all of them give good performances.
The lead actor Pratik Gandhi leaves a great impact as a smooth-talking, charming, effortless and shrewd Harshad Mehta who adds an equal amount of Gujarati in the Hindi dialogues. Gandhi has portrayed Harshad’s pompousness and excesses very well. Shreya Dhanwanthary is a righteous and spirited journalist who can pursue a story relentlessly. Apart from them Ivan Rodrigues, Anjali Barot and Hemant Kher have also given good performances.
Overall, the web series is an interesting watch with great music and cinematography. We have compiled Scam 1992 ratings from various sources which will help you decide in watching the show.
