By Troy Ribeiro
Dec 16: Film: 'The Whistleblower' (Streaming on Sony Liv); Duration: 45 minutes each episode
Director: Manoj Pillai
Cast: Akshay Baghek, Ritwik Bhowmik, Shachi Pathak, Ankit Shirbhavikar, Ankita Sharma, Vijay Pohare, Shiv Kanungo, Ravi Kishan, Sachin Khedekar, Joy Sengupta
IANS Rating: ***
Director Manoj Pillai's 'The Whistleblower' is a smouldering crime drama that unravels the ugly reality of competitive exams specifically in the medical field. It is a fictional offering inspired by a series of true events across India and thus does have a bit of a second-hand and overfamiliar feel to it.
Set in Bhopal, the series traces the systematic "murder of merit" in a corrupt society through the journey of a final-year medical student Dr Sanket. He is the only son of a renowned doctor Ashwin Badoria (Sachin Khedekar), the founder and owner of Reliable Medical Hospital, a private teaching institute. How Sanket gets sucked into the nefarious web of corruption, the repercussions it has on his personal life, and how he struggles to break free forms the crux of the narrative.
The plot skims through the examination processes of the medical field and the police department but focuses mostly on the activities of the kingpins of the corrupt racket and then on how they are exposed. The turning point does come in at a crucial moment when Sanket realises his mistake.
The lines in the series are not out of the ordinary. But there is one sentence narrated through a voice-over...
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