Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story has made waves since it was released on Sony Liv in October. The web series chronicles the rise and fall of Harshad Mehta, labelled by financial publications as the “Raging Bull’ and “Big Bull” of Bombay Stock Exchange. Told through ten episodes, the series makes the complicated world of stock and securities markets accessible for the layman and treats its protagonist with an even hand, leaving it to the audience to decide whether he is a hero or a criminal.
Harshad Mehta (Pratik Gandhi) has a true rags to riches story. Starting out as a lowly jobber in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), he makes his way through the industry until he is making transactions north of ten thousands crores. With his brother Ashwin (Hemant Kher) and his trusted second-in-command Bhushan (Chiran Vogra) by his side, he takes on industry heavyweights such as the bear trader Manu Mundra (Satish Kaushik) and head of Citi Bank India Tyagi (Nikhil Dwivedi). Eventually, however, journalist Sucheta Dalal (Shreya Dhanwantry) catches wind of a big scam that involves 500 crore rupees borrowed illegally from the State Bank of India. As she follows the story, Harshad’s life (and the stock market along with it) comes crashing down.
Director Hansal Mehta and his team of writers explore Harshad’s story in almost exhaustive detail. It makes for addictive viewing, though at times it does feel that the narrative is too tied down with the workings of markets and financial institutions. Pratik Gandhi does well as the charismatic conman, who is optimistic and full of swagger even as his life starts falling apart. Shweta Dhanwantry is compelling as the determined journalist, and the rest of the supporting cast are fairly competent in their roles.
While the series does touch on the relationships in Harshad’s life, it misses an opportunity by not exploring his character and how he interacts with the people in his life. For instance, similar films like The Wolf of Wall Street do it better when they focus on their characters’ inner lives.
At this point, the hype around Scam 1992 might be misleading. While this is an entertaining and competently produced series, there are other Indian web series out there that are equally engaging in their own way, such as Paatal Lok. Of course, Scam 1992 is better than more average fare such as Mirzapur. That’s not to say that Mirzapur isn’t entertaining- Scam 1992 just has a tighter narrative and production.
By the end of the series, you come to empathize with Harshad’s plight. He isn’t the only one who exploited the system, but he attracts the most attention and captures the public’s ire.
The series suggests that one of the reasons behind Harshad’s fall is that bigger players higher up the food chain abandoned him, or even worse, painted him as the scapegoat to avoid their own culpability. Harshad Mehta famously called a press conference where he declared that then-PM Narasimha Rao was conspiring against him because he knew too much about certain individuals.
Of course, it should be noted that a total of 76 criminal cases and 600 civil cases were filed against him, and despite being on trial until his death in 2001, he only spent time in jail for a short while. Unlike The Wolf of Wall Street, Scam 1992 doesn’t dive into the immoralities and absurdities of the lifestyles of the criminally rich. It merely presents its case and lets the audience make up their mind. While the show doesn’t entirely earn its hype, it’s entertaining, sharp and captures the visual atmosphere of the 80s and 90s very well.