The Cinemawala

While watching the episodes of ‘Bad Boys Billionaires: India’, you find yourself being amazed, getting in awe of these people who got embroiled into the greatest ever financial scams. As each episode progresses and reaches to its designated end, this sheer awe turns into anger and resentment. The fact that the common people are taken for a ride, while these tycoons get richer day by day at the expense of poor people is a resounding slap to the justice and legal system of the country. It’s an important documentary that explains in detail the extent of the con that was played by these conmen. 

Amidst ongoing legal battles, Netflix has released three episodes of the show that features the king of good times – Vijay Mallya, diamond merchant Nirav Modi and the head of the Sahara group – Subrata Roy. The episode about Ramalingaraju, the head honcho of the erstwhile IT company Satyam is put on hold due to an ongoing legal case. Each of these episodes talks about the person involved, the scam and its impact on the affected people. If the Kingfisher fiasco has numerous employees bought to their knees by their flamboyant ex-boss, the Nirav Modi scam speculates about the nexus between the bank officials and the company officials. But the biggest scam is kept for the end – Sahara vs SEBI. 

Each episode goes into minute details of the scam. Each begins with details about the man at the eye of the storm. There are plenty of people speaking, both for and against the person. Some sing paeans about their benevolence, most talk about the sheer hard work and determination of these scamsters. Truly it takes aeons of brilliance to swindle the common men. But almost everyone unanimously agrees on the fact that each of these tycoons suffers from a god complex, megalomania that almost makes them feel invincible, far away from the clutches of the law. For them, the law simply does not exist. And that’s quite evident from the way, these honchos have toyed with rules and regulations. While Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi escaped from the country, Subrata Roy had the galls to send fabricated pieces of evidence in hundreds of trucks to the regulating agencies! The brazenness of these lawbreakers is simply amazing. 

Eventually, it dawns on the viewer that it’s the common man, the poorest of poor who get affected by these scams. You see people committing suicide, you see people caught in between the financial embezzlement with no fault on their part and you see people waiting for their invested money and not even the promised interest amount for years, for the case remains sub judice. And then you wonder. You wonder that a missed credit card payment on your part lowers your credit score and threatens your loan taking ability. It makes bank officials hound you like rabid dogs. Then how come these moguls, business magnates manage to swindle billions of funds and nobody bats an eyelid? 

Guess, there are no answers!

‘Big Bad Billionaires: India’ is now streaming on Netflix. Three episodes, each running approximately for 60 minutes. Rated all for universal viewing. 

The Cinemawala Rating:3/5