Facing the heat in the crime beat

The fine line between journalism and sensationalism is fast becoming wafer-thin. Even those not privy to the world of journalism are aware of the falsehoods the media propagates in search of truth. So, what can the showrunner of ‘Crime Beat’, Sudhir Mishra, tell us what we already don’t know, or go beyond what Hansal Mehta’s ‘Scoop’ or ‘The Broken News’ offered? ‘Crime Beat’, like Mehta’s ‘Scoop’, is very much an insider account of investigative journalism.

Based on the novel ‘The Price You Pay’ by Somnath Batabyal, who spent a decade covering crime, it takes us into the heart of news gatherers. Set in 2011 in New Delhi, a journalist, Abhishek Sinha (Saqib Saleem), in pursuit of page one stories even recreates the drama for a story. Of course, before we meet the protagonist of the series, we are introduced to Binny Chaudhry (Rahul Bhat). Hailed as a messiah, he is on the verge of surrendering to the police but before we get to know who he is, he is shot dead.

Back in time, many dots are joined and re-joined to tell this gangster’s story. He is on the run and has escaped to Afghanistan. If intelligence agencies want him dead, Abhishek finds himself in the thick of things and is inexorably drawn into following the leads. Coming from the pen of a real-life reporter, who has also co-written the dialogues, conversations in newsrooms look real. The most credible portrayal is that of Amir Akhtar, editor of daily newspaper Express. Danish Husain as Amir looks and plays it real and his concerns on news reportage sound genuine. He even points out the new reality/dilemma which the print medium faces today: “Who, what, when, where toh television kha gaya, toh bacha kya — why?”(Television has swallowed the four Ws of news gathering and the print medium is left with exploring the why of news). Indeed, getting to the bottom of a crime story is laden with pitfalls and is a snake and ladders game.

Crime, as all reporters know, is not an easy beat to navigate. You have to hobnob with the police and often for that exclusive expose, pally up with criminals too. And when someone like Binny comes in the garb of a Robin Hood of sorts, showering money on the residents of his town Gopalpura (a la ‘Money Heist’), what do you make of him?

Abhishek, however, suffers from no moral conundrum while chasing the fugitive or even carrying forth his agenda. So, to point out his ethical ambiguity, we have the righteous journalist Meera (Saba Azad), but her sermons on what is ethical journalism and what is not do not hold much water. Since she too stands guilty of a major omission, she gives us little sense of redemption. Her backstory, of being a woman of exceptional privilege, does little to sparkle her character.

Sai Tamhankar as Binny’s heroine, woman Friday and honey-trap, carrying out kidnappings at his behest, also makes a limited impact. Many other players of the game, which exposes the Commonwealth Games scam, fall in the grey area. If Rajesh Tailang’s DCP Uday is a flawed being playing to his master’s voice, Binny is not an outright monster. Rahul Bhat, proving his credentials as a fine actor in one after another series, is again among the strongest links in the narrative.

Saqib, headlining the show, is competent and carries off his rookie journalist turning star reporter act with conviction, even when he is doing the implausible, scaling walls to dig more into Binny’s life. Addinath Kothare as the morally upright policeman and Kishore Kadam as the photographer are a perfect fit.

While the storyline occasionally suffers from lapses of credulity, the ensemble cast, including actors like Vipin Sharma as the corrupt minister, makes up for any dips. Besides the fast pace, good editing, skilled cinematography and the short duration of eight episodes make ‘Crime Beat’ an easy, engaging and bingeable watch. Only from an auteur of Mishra’s calibre can one expect a sharper look and deeper dive into the amoral world (ridden by scams and nexuses) he explores. Here, you have to be more content with its entertaining and thrilling slant.