‘Scam 1992′ is about the significant outrages that shook India and are recognized as probably the most famous violations of the country. Set in 1980’s and 90’s Bombay, Scam 1992 follows the existence of Harshad Mehta – the scandalous “Bachchan of BSE”. It was a poverty to newfound wealth story till monetary writer Sucheta Dalal uncovered Harshad as the man behind India’s greatest monetary trick. After his capture, the financial exchange slammed and incalculable Indians lost all reserve funds. Interestingly, the CBI was constrained to dispatch an examination concerning a monetary wrongdoing. A degenerate monetary framework was uncovered. Harshad ultimately kicked the bucket in care.
Harshad Mehta Scam 1992: Hansal Mehta delves deep into 1980s and 1990s India to unearth the story of the country’s securities problem. Harshad Mehta’s boom-to-bust story is typical of the era, but not exceptional. Harshad Mehta, the king of the Bombay Stock Exchange, was featured on the cover of a magazine under the headline “The Raging Bull” during the height of his reign. He was popularly known as “THE BIG BULL” and “BSE KA AMITABH BACCHAN” by the people BSE and media.’ Nothing, however, puts Harshad’s life and Hansal Mehta’s web series, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, in the same light as the stockbroker’s favourite – Dalal Street’s Amitabh Bachchan. By offering context and much-needed perspective, a series on a seemingly simple subject like securities fraud becomes 500 minutes of binge-worthy entertainment. It helps us to determine whether Harshad was a victim or a criminal while also revealing who he was.
Those who lived in neo liberalised India in the early 1990s and before would understand how a broker could be as well-known as a movie star. He is the subject of several web series and a film, both of which star the son of the man to whom he so enjoyed being compared, nineteen years after his death. He was dubbed “the common man’s hero,” and he died in prison while facing 70 criminal charges and 600 civil claims. His mantra was “risk hai to ishk hai,” and he worked his way up from a Kandivali chawl to a Marine Drive penthouse in a country riddled with outdated laws and bureaucratic red tape.
Nothing is more enticing than a combination of money, ambition, and power, and Harshad’s story has it all. Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story takes a modern anti-hero story and runs with it. Harshad is never portrayed as a criminal in the web series; instead, he is portrayed as a crooked man who took advantage of loopholes in an archaic system. He didn’t invent the loopholes, and he wasn’t the only one who took advantage of them, but the system eventually triumphed.
He is the outcast, the chawl boy who aspires to not only play with, but also beat, the big boys at their own game. They, of course, aren’t having it. “We do it with class,” one man snidely remarks to his snobbish associates, “and Harshad has no class.” Another person calls him a “bloody paanwallah.” He was brought down by a cartel or a group of “insiders,” according to the series. Journalist Sucheta Dalal (Shreya Dhanwantry) learns about the 1992 securities scam through a contact sent by the ‘cartel.’
Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story is based on Dalal and Debashis Basu’s book The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away, and Sucheta plays an important role in the film. It depicts the rags-to-riches story by focusing on how Harshad rigged the system with the help of public sector banks and private financial institutions, resulting in thousands of crores in losses.
Harshad’s ascension to power is without a doubt the most intriguing aspect of this ten-part series. Beginning as a jobber – the lowest rung in the food chain – he experiences meteoric growth as a result of his business acumen and willingness to bilk the system. He takes on the established system and the expletive-spouting bear trader with his brother Ashwin (Hemant Kher) and trusted aide Bhushan (Chirag Vohra) (Satish Kaushik). Harshad, a thief, quickly takes over the bourse and sets his sights on the bigger prize – the securities markets. This is where he meets his most vocal critics, led by Citibank India CEO Thiagarajan (Nikhil Dwivedi). A complex war erupts as the two sides refuse to let this rank outsider muscle his way onto their turf.
Harshad, who has amassed a large fortune and has a direct line to Delhi via a self-styled godman (Chandraswami, google him), has begun to believe his own myth. The stockbroker is the new demi-god of a country quietly but steadily embracing capitalism and conspicuous consumption, with a penthouse overlooking the Arabian Sea, a fleet of flashy cars, and an army of acolytes dying for his autograph. Harshad marketed the stock market’s push-and-pull to the middle class as a get-rich-quick scheme; greed was turning out to be a good thing.
Like the millions who purchased this dream, Harshad begins to take too many risks and gives the chance he is searching for. A survey of both the Reserve Bank of India and finally the Central Research Bureau is launched in the Sucheta research report. In order to tighten the twists of Harshad and their cohorts the investigative CBI officer Madhavan (Rajat Kapoor), particularly officials from Mumbai State Bank of India and former Chief Indian Unit M.K. Pherwani (KK Raina). Something is rotten in Delhi, the power seat. Scam 1992 is a series that is not afraid to call and point.
The Big Bull “Harshad Mehta” is dead at the end of the series sending out the message that no one is above the sytem and system is the most important thing in this country and the series in the end sends a message that don’t be fooled by Mumbai City’s beautiful visuals, this is a jungle out there and everyone is hunting for someone to get on the top.
Outstanding performances from Pratik Gandhi playing the lead role of Harshad Mehta has done an absolultely fantastic job and looks almost same as Harshad in the series while he says that he had never saw Harshad Mehta in real life. For Pratik this web series was a career changing one it was a breakthrough in his career. He channels Harshad’s charm and all his habits and potrays as he himself was the stock broker.
