Jamtara Review: A binge-worthy “phishing” tale

Team Udayavani, Jan 22, 2020, 5:58 PM IST

‘Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega’ is the first Indian web series release of Netflix in 2020. This series revolves around a group of teenagers who randomly call people claiming themselves as representatives of banks and financial companies and collect their debit card details to steal money.

Soumendra Padhi who directed ‘Budhia Singh: Born to Run’ has penned and directed this series.

The backdrop revolves around the district of Jamtara in Jharkhand which is well-known as the “Phishing capital of India”.

In the first couple of episodes, the makers describe how these teenagers call people and steal money.

Despite the efforts by police to catch these thugs, the district court rules them as ‘not guilty’ due to lack of evidence and lack of cyber-crime cell in the district.

The crime branch appoints a new sub-inspector Dolly Dube (Aksha Pardasany) to catch these people and bring law and order in place.

The internal clash between these teenagers and the involvement of a local politician Brajesh Bhaan (Amit Sial) puts the “phishing business” in limelight. As the story progresses, we could watch whether they try to escape from the police or get caught in the act.

Sunny (Sparsh Srivastav) is one of the lead characters in Jamtara who stands against the antagonist, has acted brilliantly with his raw and natural delivery.

Rocky (Anshuman Pushkar), his brother who wants to be a politician who follows the orders of the ones in power does justice to his role.

Brajesh Bhaan (Amit Sial), the main antagonist of this entire web series commands the entire group of phishing people is the star of Jamtara. His mannerism and acting as a typical “Indian movie” politician is applaudable.

The performance of two female leads, Dolly Saahu (Aksha Pardasany) as a sub-inspector and Gudiya (Monika Panwar) as a coaching center owner and Sunny’s crime partner is exceptional.

The duo of Munna (Rohit KP) and Bachcha (Harshit Gupta) who act as spectators who narrate the sequence in their interactions and giving away the plot idea to the audience is enjoyable.

Sidhant Mathur has given the original score that has the elements of suspense in it that suits the drama.

Kaushal Shah is the director of photography and Jamtara is shot in yellowish tinge giving a cinematic feel of a village.

The editing is done by Zubin Shaikh is a major plus in the series. Each episode in the web series has a runtime of 30-40 minutes.

What we liked about the show is every episode starts off from where the previous episode end. Which also gives a cinematic experience for those who like to binge-watch. Since the runtime of the entire web series is 5 hours, one would be able to binge-watch the entire season in one go.

We liked the narration on how these youngsters pull the scam whether it is from changing the voice to that of a female, or to marrying an elder woman who could manage to speak in English.

Soumendra Padhi has adapted many real incidents of phishing and showed how these fraudsters call employees of private sectors, politicians, police, and lawyers and scam them by offering for some exciting rewards.

The only thing that was missing in this series is the makers do not reveal who is the kingpin behind them and how these teenagers get the list of phone numbers, Bank accounts, SIM cards or money.

The series throws light on how someone sitting in an unknown village in the country can rob others easily. The key takeaway is how one can be safe and avoid being a victim to any phishing scams.

As season two is surely on the cards, this is one of the best web series one could watch on Netflix right now.

-Madhukar Bhat H