There is such a swift and easy flow of talent in this new eight-episode series on Zee5, that it seems a pity to pick holes in Crime Beat. But holes, there are aplenty, with the journalist-hero Abhishek Sinha (played by an adequate if not quite outstanding Saqib Saalim) taking a fall each time the storytelling falters to keep up with his zeal for Page 1.
The last time we saw a crime journalist taking such insane risks for a story was in Kanu Behl’s Despatch, and we all know what happened to Manoj Bajpayee in that.
The fledgling super-snooper in Crime Beat doesn’t face the same heat as Joy Bag in Despatch, probably on account of his callowness rather than callousness. When one is as young as Abhishek Sinha, the errors of judgment are often attributed to immaturity, even though they are born out of overweening ambition.
Abhishek Sinha and his editor-boss Aamir Akhtar (Danish Hussain, dependably excellent) form the central axis in a plot that tends to get ahead of itself, running into deadends in pursuit of viewer-shipness (to coin a phrase). In that sense, the story writers are one with their protagonist, running ahead of themselves, not heeding the rumble of the stumble ahead.
That said, Crime Beat is not a downer on any account. It is brisk-paced and largely gripping. Noticeably, it is not shot like a home-viewing experience; instead, it conveys the fulsome visual velocity of a big screen venture, with better actors, at least in some instances, for example, Raahul Bhat, who plays the fugitive villain Binny Chowdhary with such subtle sinisterness. Just the other week, we saw Bhat excelling as a jailor in that other binge-worthy series, Black Warrant.
Is there no end to what Bhat can do to his characters? The other two scene-stealers in Crime Beat are Danish Hussain, who, as an unscrupulous but self-righteous newshound, is pitch perfect, and the immeasurably versatile Sai Tamhankar (gosh, does she ever stop!), whose femme fatale /Mata Hari/Kill Bill act is lethally potent.
My favourite sequence in Crime Beat features Raahul Bhat saying goodbye to Sai Tamhankar. Watch how the two actors breathe life into a potentially trite moment
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Not all the salient actors are impressive. Some of them are miscast, and the others trying hard to prove they are not (miscast, I mean). Showrunner Sudhir Mishra is a pro and knows which buttons to press to make the proceedings seem alive, alert, and agile. Director Sanjeev Kaul shifts moods and locations with well-oiled expertise. The narration falters only when it fakes its frenzy to justify the protracted eight-episode duration.
