Hustlers follows the story of a young man and an engineering dropout who is fascinated by the world of startups, and plans to open one of his own. Does he manage to succeed in his goal? The story here may not be entirely novel but it does give a little glimpse into the engineering life and the startup culture that has been ruling the roosts lately. In fact with AI coming in picture, I am of the firm belief that if possible, everyone should try and open a business of their own in order to create opportunities for folks particularly with several job cuts taking place across the globe. And this sentiment is well represented in the series as well in a screenplay comprising of 5 episodes ranging from 30 odd to 50 odd minutes that makes for a compelling watch despite the minor hiccups along the way.

The drama opens on a future timeline wherein the viewers get the news of a Venture Capitalist’s website being hacked followed by the arrest of the protagonist. The drama cuts to the past wherein you are introduced to a protagonist who has freshly been admitted in a top Engineering college. The world of an Engineering college created is quite vibrant and given my Engineering background, I can vouch for the authenticity of it although with a few frivolous undertones. Right from the beginning, you can make out that the protagonist is different from the crowd in terms of his thinking or his street smart attitude that he exerts in preparing a question paper with all the probable questions in store. His work-smart attitude stems from his family featuring his father who has always been favouring his elder brother while mostly dismissing the protagonist or putting undue pressure on him to study hard and get a job. But life has other plans for him when he soon is introduced to the world of startups.

The proceedings are engaging particularly with the world building leading up to the idea of a startup originating in the mind of the protagonist. The startup culture represented in the series is absolutely elementary level which is a pro and a con in itself. For folks who aren’t entirely familiar with the terminologies can easily understand the chain of events here which wasn’t the case in the more technical second season of Pitchers. But because I was aware of the terms, it was a little too basic for me. In addition to that, the sequence involving the incident at the start did seem a little too frivolous for my liking. But the good news was that the writers found their mojo immediately after that.

I did like a little representation of the ongoing hustle that we all are familiar with in the startup world. As they say, you need a good team to back you with her sky high ambitions and that was well established in the back half of the show. The networking bit along with a few mind games on the part of the protagonst did add layers to the drama. However, I did feel that the struggle of a startup was just about touched upon as opposed to building a subplot around it. I did feel that the ending was a little too simplistic, abrupt and convenient whereas in reality, I was engrossed with the layered world of Pitchers, something that was a little closer to reality. But I didn’t mind the drama here around it which was pretty solid and the same cannot be discounted either. Overall, despite the hiccups, the screenplay here is engaging and it makes for a compelling watch.