A significant addition to the small canon of Indian media industry dramas, Crime Beat, like Scoop before it, is based on a book written by a journalist who was in the thick of the action that forms the core of the series. Even its fictional elements largely flow from fact.
The Zee5 series is marked by realism, an attribute that stems from its abjuration of overt generic flourishes. The dialogues co-written by the author of the novel (The Price You Pay, published in 2013)—scribe-turned academic Somnath Batabyal—contribute conversational authenticity to the show.
Crime Beat investigates the Delhi underworld, the media's attritional brushes with it and with men in uniform charged with keeping crime in check in the city. The lines that separate the three domains from each other as well as from party politics are frequently blurred, even erased.
The show centres on a young man who arrives in Delhi from Varanasi to try and make it as a crime reporter. In a cutthroat world, he has to negotiate with a cynical chief of the news bureau, reckon with two police officers grappling with professional and personal issues of their own and confront a crime lord whose political ambition draws him out of exile and pull off high-profile kidnappings.
The pace tends to flag in some passages of the eight-episode series but the occasional meanderings of Crime Beat are not entirely wasted. The fluctuating arc approximates the unsteady progress of the protagonist, Abhishek Sinha (Saqib Saleem). Crime Beat is a probing character study that encompasses the larger world that the protagonist navigates all in a day's work.
Scoop, was a Mumbai story based on an incident that hit the headlines in 2011. Crime Beat, directed by showrunner Sudhir Mishra and script and dialogue writer Sanjeev Kaul, plays out in Delhi in the same year. It wends its way through the national capital's criminal underbelly and views its dirty innards principally through the eyes of a police beat reporter learning the ropes the hard way.
The show makes a stray reference to the Uphaar Cinema fire of 1997, but its action is located years later, in the aftermath of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and during the 2011 ICC World Cup. The former sporting event has a direct bearing on the narrative as a cat-and-mouse game unfolds between the cops and the criminals, many of whom are in cahoots with each other, and the protagonist and his colleagues deal with the consequences of being sucked into the unholy nexus.
Crime Beat explores the venomous links between manipulative politicians, the key one here is essayed by Vipin Sharma, and law-breakers who appear to operate with impunity. The focus of the series is, however, primarily on a young journalist's perilous learning curve that is dotted with dangerous detours.
It also examines the conflicting dynamics of privilege and power, small town and big city, ambition and betrayal, and ethics and compromises, seen through the prism of the functioning of the media and fast eroding sheen.
The protagonist hopes to work as part of a team in his pursuit of professional recognition but he is constantly thwarted and pushed into corners where he must fend for himself. He does make a few friends in the hostile environment that he operates in but his fight for a firm footing on a slippery turf frequently compels him to choose self-preservation over everything else.
Amid the flurry of challenges that he faces, he develops a relationship with colleague Maya Mathur (Saba Azad), is mentored by seasoned photographer Pashupati (Kishor Kadam) and finds an unlikely confidant in Assistant Commissioner of Police Mayank Sharma (Addinath M Kothare).
In a world where there are no permanent friendships, many powerful people stand in Abhishek's way as he navigates the dog-eat-dog universe of desperate newshounds, corrupt government contractors, and smarmy politicians.
His boss, Amir Akhtar (Danish Hussain), does little to ease the small-town lad's efforts to ease himself into the big, bad world of news-gathering. He is under constant scrutiny. Deputy Commissioner of Police Uday Kumar (Rajesh Tailang) has a bunch of secrets that he fiercely guards.
The most daunting of Abhishek Sinha's adversaries is gangster Binny Chaudhary (Rahul Bhat), who runs a kidnapping racket with near-impunity. The mafia don's return to Delhi is necessitated by an urge to strengthen his Robin Hood-like image in his constituency.
Every crime reporter tracking Binny's moves knows the what, when, and how of the man's modus operandi. Abhishek sets out to figure out the reason for his latest spurt of crimes.
Crime Beat catches journalism in a time of great flux, in an era that saw the decline of old-school investigative reportage aimed at holding those in power to account.
"Investigative journalism ki koi jagah nahi hai iss desh mein," photographer Pashupati says to Abhishek even as the latter shows no signs of taking that lament seriously.
Pashupati also wonders if photographers as a tribe are relevant anymore. He asks Abhishek a rhetorical question, "Photographers ka koi kaam hota hai kya aaj kal?"
As Crime Beat reflects on the state of the media, it conjures up a character reminiscent of the classic gangster's moll, Archana Pandey (Sai Tamhankar). She isn't one to stand by and watch the men perform their nefarious acts. She gets her share of the action. The actress makes the most of the opportunity.
Talking of acting, Crime Beat is well served by the cast. With restraint built into the script, the actors have the freedom not to go in for undue amplification. Saqib Saleem holds the fort with confidence but several of the others in the cast are consistent scene-stealers, not the least of whom is Kishor Kadam as the photographer who has seen it all and nurtures no illusions anymore.
Rajesh Tailang and Addinath M Kothare as the two policemen, Rahul Bhatt as the mafioso and Vipin Sharma playing a politician are spot on with their characteristics. Saba Azad and Sai Tamhankar, as two women who hold their own in a man's world, do pretty much the same with their roles in a male-dominated show.
Crime Beat isn't a crackling thriller in the conventional mould. Its highs stem from moments anchored in a tempered rhythm, with the directors and the actors clued in completely to the temp of the story. Eminently binge-watchable.
-
Saqib Saleem, Saba Azad, Sai Tamhankar, Rahul Bhat, Rajesh Tailang