Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (TV Series) ~ Ratings | Videos

Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story is an Indian crime web series directed by Hansal Mehta and Jai Mehta. It stars Pratik Gandhi and Shreya Dhanwanthary as parallel leads. The show needs no introduction – especially not if viewers are even vaguely versed with the Indian OTT universe. Scam 1992 has taken the audiences by storm ever since it started streaming on SonyLIV in October 2020. It has received praise for the performance of its cast as well as technical segments. Another instalment was announced in March 2021, which will be directed by Hansal Mehta as well. As of 2021, it is the most viewed web series on SonyLIV. The real question here is – does it live up to the hype that surrounds it?

Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story | Streaming NOW

Facts

• The ending song (“Mat kar maya ko ahankara…”) in the last episode takes its lines from one of the songs of the famous 15th century bard and saint, Kabir.

• The show is based on the book The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away by Sucheta Dalal and her husband, Debashis Basu.

• The character of Maheshwari is based on Radhakrishnan Damani, who founded the DMart chain of supermarkets.

• Bhushan’s role found its inspiration in Ketan Parekh, an ex-intern in Mehta’s firm, who was later involved in another scam, and was exposed by Dalal as well.

Plot

Pratik Gandi as Harshad Mehta smiling with a mustache and wearing a white shirt

The show bases its premise on the Indian Stock Market scam of 1992, which was committed by many stockbrockers, one of them being Harshad Mehta, in whom the show finds its protagonist. Harshad Mehta starts off as a run-of-the-mill Gujarati salesman, who lives in a tiny one-room flat with his family. After a cycle of odd jobs, he starts working at the Bombay Stock Exchange. Here, he is still unhappy with his career trajectory, which leads him down the path of earning profits through market system loopholes and bribery. Parallelly, the story follows journalist Sucheta Dalal’s investigation of Mehta’s business, after she gets a tip about the latter’s involvement in a scam related to State Bank of India.

Review

Pratik Gandi leaning on a red car with hands on the hip while wearing a brown suit and eyeglasses in a poster of the 1992 TV series "Scam"

The financial fraud, that caused the entire Indian stock market to crash, beautifully plays out in The Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. The parallel leads, Pratik Gandhi (Harshad Mehta) and Shweta Dhanwanthary (Sucheta Dalal), are resplendent in their respective roles. One of the most noticeable takeaways from the show is its realistic portrayal of the stock market: there is use of financial jargon like “ready forward” which helps the viewers logically keep up with Mehta’s exploits. The erstwhile Bombay of the 80s, and 90s is poignantly captured onscreen, lending a certain sense of nostalgia as well. The framing in the show adds to its magic. The only drawback we could find here was that the repeated cliched dialogues (such as “Risk hai toh ishq hai”) which could have been avoided.

Episodes

Jay Upadhyay, Pratik Ghandi and Chirag Vohra walking on the corridor and wearing black suits in a scene from the 1992 TV series "Scam"

Risk se Ishq Hai

A Ghatkopar-based middle class man, Harshad Mehta, ventures into the stock market, and picks up the skill of jobbing.

Cobra Killer

Mehta starts his own firm, Growmore Consultancy, in the wake of bankruptcy and personal loss.

Paise ki Dukaan

Mehta’s interest in stock market grows and he begins dealing banks – his life skyrockets when he nabs State Bank of India as a client.

Harshad Mehta is a Liar

Sucheta Dalal, a financial journalist, begins investigating Mehta’s sudden success.

On the left is Pratik Ghandi as Harshad Mehta while on the right is Shreya Danwanthary as Sucheta Dalal in the 1992 TV series "Scam"

Kundali Mein Shani

Mehta’s shady transactions cause the RBI governor to ask SBI to keep a close track of his fund movements.

Stop Press

While Mehta manages to clear his SBI debts, Dalal refuses to give up on exposing him, after receiving a tip from Bellary.

Dalal Street ka Dariya

An investigating committee is set up after Venkatrajan realises the scam is a lot bigger than it seems.

Matador

Dalal releases the information about the involvement of NHB, which provokes the CBI to start its investigation.

Ek Crore ka Suitcase

The government tries to reach a negotiation but it does not work; an explosive press conference sets the stage further.

Main History Banana Chahta Hu

Delhi seals a deal with Mehta, and things seem to be getting better…at first.

Cast List

On the left is Anant Mahadevan, on the center is Shreya Dhanwhantary and on the right is Rajat Kapoor as casts in the 1992 TV series "Scam"

Pratik Gandhi (Harshad Mehta)

Shreya Dhanwanthary (Sucheta Dalal)

Hemant Kher (Ashwin Mehta)

Anjali Barot (Jyoti Mehta)

Chirag Vohra (Bhushan Bhatt)

Brinda Trivedi (Deepika Mehta)

Jay Upadhyay (Pranav Sheth)

Kumkum Das (Rasilaben Mehta)

Ananth Narayan Mahadevan (S. Venkitaramanan)

Faisal Rashid (Debashis)

Nikhil Dwivedi (Tyagi)

Kavin Dave (Rakesh)

Paresh Ganatra (Maheshwari)

Himanshu Kohli (Raahil)

Aakanksha Gade (Raahil's Wife)

K.K. Raina (MJ Pherwani)

Kartik Krishnan (Swami)

Varun Kulkarni (Manu Mundra's Assistant)

References

Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (TV Series) BBC India

(Text) CC BY-SA

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