The Whistleblower review: Interestingly Fascinating & Scary

Think about it: will you take your ailing child or mother to a doctor who has got into the profession because their rich father paid for a seat? When details about the Madhya Pradesh Medical Entrance Exam Scam came out, it created havoc.

It suggested a nexus between government officials, bright students who wrote exams by proxy for undeserving candidates because they needed money, rich folk whose kids could never pass the exam on their own steam but could pay. And then last but not the least, guys who run coaching classes but secretly take lots of cash to fill medical colleges and police academies with undeserving candidates.

Once called ‘Sifarish’ candidates - those who got a seat because they were recommended to college by important people - are now admitted to medical colleges because they secured a rank by having someone else appear in the entrance exam for them.

Their swagger is not limited to securing a seat, but they throw enough money around to get ahead despite failing exams when in medical college.

When the show opens and we see interns rush to save a patient because another intern who paid his way in prescribed the wrong medicine, you will realize that this is a grave problem: Undeserving candidates will probably harm more patients than do any good. And they will always throw cash to get out of situations.

In this show, the Whistleblower is a young, bright doctor who thinks it would be a kick to write exams, fun because he will get enormous amounts of money. But his ‘kick’ is going to cost him his future, his father’s reputation as an honest doctor and as an upright head of a medical college – played by Sachin Khedekar, his girl who is also a dedicated young intern doctor. Although we see Sanket - the protagonist - drink, do drugs and even cheat on his girlfriend played by Ankita Sharma, there is something good about him because he believes he can get out of these exams through a proxy scheme.

His naivete will cost him. Ritwick Bhowmick plays the role of Sanket in the show, and does it rather well. We get angry for him and wish we could do something for bright students like him who lose their sense of right and wrong.

Sachin Khedekar plays Sanket’s father. He is an upright doctor who hates the idea of undeserving candidates cheating their way into colleges. He thinks his own teaching hospital is free from any corruption. Alas, his own son will be betraying him.

The man who manipulates the people with money and organizes the proxy exam writers is Ravi Kishen, who is called Dadda. Ravi Kishen is such a good villain, your heart will skip a couple of beats when you hear him threaten Sanket, Sanket’s father, and even get rid of his underlings and blame it on someone else…He makes deals in crores and he doesn’t care what the candidates do once they get into a medical college.

Sonali Kulkarni and Ashish Verma are journalists who try to uncover the scam piece by piece. With a little help from good doctors like Pragya and when his conscience pushes him, Sanket.