It’s always tricky when journalism becomes the story. The lives of the characters start to look like the work they do. They sound like the sensationalized craft that defines them. The film or series designs them as a clickbaity op-ed page instead of an investigative piece. The unsubtle treatment (adultery! workaholism! mean editors! desperate interns!) reflects the makers’ musings on a fraternity whose own insecurities shape the post-truth conscience of a nation. It pushes the viewer to read the news industry in binaries: TRPs (television rating point) v/s integrity, ambition v/s ethics, romance v/s relevance. Scoop, the new Netflix series created by Hansal Mehta and Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul, is distinctly aware of this treatment. It knows the tropes and themes. It knows that, authenticity-wise, the only vocation worse than medicine in Hindi cinema is journalism. A popular comedian like Danish Sait has a cameo as a TV news anchor because the joke is on the audiences who lap up baseless judgements posing as primetime entertainment. If anything, this skewed gaze – and Scoop’s slow-burning subversion of it – is hardwired into its premise.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
