The Whistleblower
Introduction
It was a few years back when a scam related to admission has sent a shockwave across the country. Vyapam as the scam was called involved the proxy examination and admission of many students. It was when someone had blown their cover when so many innocent lives were lost. This literally was a shocking event to have taken place. Even today if we see, exams recently were cancelled as the examination papers were leaked. This is extremely unfair for candidates who have studied throughout the year only to be left disappointed at the end of the day. Based on this theme a new Hindi webseries by the name The Whistleblower was out and I have finally finished watching it. The series is available on SonyLiv which is known to produce some amazing series. Does The Whistleblower live upto the expectations, lets find out.
Story & Screenplay
A fictional account on true events, The Whistleblower follows the story of the revelation of a massive education scam taking place in a medical college. The story is extremely relevant and hard hitting and ofcourse compelling and engaging. The screenplay is a bit of a slow burn so everyone may not appreciate it enough. For starters, the screenplwy takes a while to gather steam. Almost 3 episodes are spent in the setup and introduction of characters and how vital the players they turn out to be in the ultimate scheme of things. I feel this portion could have been shortened a bit which would lead to the overall length of the series being reduced. The series stands at 9 episodes of almost 45 to 50 minutes each and hence is a bit long for my liking. However, once the scam begins the engagement begins too. You are almost hooked to the drama as more and more shockers are revealed bit by bit. The twists and turns are interesting and are sure to keep you hooked and booked. The screenplay at this point is designed to be cerebral and it almost becomes addictive after a point. The end is slightly underwhelming but still satisfying upto a point. The message that the makers were trying to convey has been effectively done so. Overall, a compelling and engaging screenplay.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are conversational but they also have some well written one-liners. The music is good and so is the BGM. Director Manoj Pillai has done a good job even though at certain places the execution could have been better. He is a little rough around the edges but he still does a great job here.
Performances
The performances comprise of a string of unknown faces with a bundle of talent and it is casting director Mukesh Chhabra who deserves credit to unearth them. Pratiek Pachori, Imran Javed, Bhagwan Tiwari and Girish Sharma have their moments to shine. Sushant Sharma and Shiv Kanungo are impressive in their cameos. Hemant Kher as Sunil is intimidating and does a great job. Shachi Pathak is quite good as well. Akshay Baghel as Dinesh is quite nice in a character which is conflicted. Sonali Kulkarni as Zaini is absolutely brilliant. Ashish S Verma as Anup is fantastic and such a natural onscreen. Ridhi Khakar as Prachi looks pretty and is confident in front of the camera. The veteran Sachin Khedekar is quite brilliant himself. Ankitta Sharma as Pragya for me is the find of the series. She epitomizes beauty with brains and does a wonderful job. She holds her own in front of seasoned actors. Ravi Kishen as Dadda aka Jairaj is brilliantly restrained. His dialogue delivery is amazing to witness. Ritwik Bhowmik post the success of Bandish Bandits is in great form here. As Sanket, he delivers a very matured performance. He has to do a lot of the heavy lifting and he does a brilliant job here!
Conclusion
The Whistleblower is a compelling and engaging slowburner tackling a relevant subject. Available on Sony Liv.