2 Stars (out of 4)

Watch Reporting Live on Netflix

The crime drama Reporting Live is so plot-focused that characters exist just to move story events forward.

Field reporter Sandhya (Parineeti Chopra) and her cameraman Vinod (Deven Bhojani) feel underappreciated at their TV station. The risk they take to get an exclusive interview with a community leader opposing the building of a new shopping mall proves meaningless when their station chief Shyam (Shekhar Suman) pulls it from air, lest they upset the well-connected construction firm behind the mall.

Sandhya and Vinod stumble onto a story with such huge implications it can’t be ignored. A bridge collapses in a village outside of Mumbai, sending a school bus full of children to their deaths. One brave local man who goes by Shiva Kaka (Amol Palekar) shows them the illegal sand dredging near the base of the bridge supports that likely caused the collapse.

That’s just one part of a massive criminal enterprise that supplies the materials needed for Mumbai’s construction boom. Uncovering the head of the operation would be a massive boost for the station’s ratings and for Sandhya’s and Vinod’s careers. Yet even as they face increasing danger the closer they get to the truth — proof that they are onto something big — Shyam forbids them from pursuing the story further.

Writer-director Dhruv Tripathi and his co-writer Mihir Jadhav are so detailed in their presentation of the criminal enterprise uncovered by Sandhya and Vinod that nothing is left to the imagination. That’s helpful for anyone watching who has never heard or read anything about a criminal conspiracy before, but that likely doesn’t apply to most people watching the movie (or who’ve spent any time living on Earth).

It’s not to say that the details of the crime aren’t interesting. It’s just that they are presented in such a thorough manner that it becomes clinical. There’s little room left for human emotion. Even scenes that would normally be sad or frightening feel like neutral story beats — things that happened on the way toward the plot’s conclusion.

The actors feel it, too. Chopra has given terrific performances in thrillers like Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar and Ishaqzaade, but she sleepwalks through Reporting Live. Same for Bhojani. Even the immensely talented Adil Hussain — who plays the station’s editor-in-chief Vidur — seems unsure of what’s expected of him. When in doubt, Suman’s Shyam just yells.

Reporting Live has the bones of a thriller, but it lacks tension and danger, and there’s no reason to care about the characters.

Links

• Reporting Live at Wikipedia
• Reporting Live at IMDb
• My review of Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar
• My review of Ishaqzaade