At a time when investigative reports by The Indian Express have sparked protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Dhruv Tripathi’s new film, Reporting Live, feels eerily timely. But beyond its timing, the film’s understanding of journalism relies on clichés. Sandhya Yadav (Parineeti Chopra), a young and promising reporter, strikes ‘brown gold’ while investigating the collapse of a bridge in a village near Mumbai. What local politicians attribute to a solar eclipse turns out to be linked to a sand-mining mafia run by Golden Sky, a powerful conglomerate. With the help of whistleblowers Shiva (Amol Palekar) and Mangesh (Pitobash Tripathy), Sandhya and her colleague, cameraman Vinod (Deven Bhojani), begin to piece together the story. Once the story breaks, one of the whistleblowers is killed. The investigation soon brings threats to the reporters, puts their jobs at risk and eventually leads to a confrontation with the conglomerate’s owner.
But as the stakes rise, the film falls back on familiar clichés of reporters doggedly pursuing a story, often with exaggerated drama. At one point, Sandhya and Vinod forcefully barge into the editor’s room to discuss the development of the story. In a real newsroom, this is unimaginable. When they are discouraged from pursuing the investigation further, they retreat to an abandoned basement office to continue their work. Such contrivances weaken a film that seeks to explore the price journalists pay for pursuing uncomfortable truths. There is enough drama in newsrooms. The film would have benefited from drawing more from reality than from relying on familiar fictional scenarios.
Reporting Live is timely in another sense: it joins a growing body of films and series about journalism, such as Bhakshak and Scoop, that draw on real events or familiar realities of the profession. The film’s intent is well placed. It explores how deeply power has penetrated the institutions meant to hold it accountable, from babus and netas to newspaper editors. But its treatment is too formulaic to do justice to this premise.
Its more convincing moments, in fact, come from the relationships it portrays. Sandhya and Vinod share tender moments of friendship, while editor Vidur (Adil Hussain) sees in Sandhya the image of his young days. The reporters also develop an emotional connection with their subjects. These moments hint at a more affecting film, one that could have explored the human cost of reporting without leaning so heavily on manufactured drama.
Chopra captures Sandhya’s initial hesitation as a young reporter, as well as her growing resilience. Her performance does justice to the character. Bhojani is equally effective. Adil Hussain lends his usual assurance to the role of Vidur, while Shekhar Suman also makes an impression. Yet even a strong cast cannot entirely redeem the film’s shortcomings. The dramatic background score only adds to the excess; at times, the film feels more like a soap opera. In a film about the courage to report the truth, the greatest missed opportunity is its failure to show how easily that truth can be contained before a reporter even gets the chance to publish it.