Jamtara – Sabka Number Ayega stylised as Jamta₹a is an Indian crime drama television series created and directed by Soumendra Padhi and written by Trishant Srivastava.[1] The story revolves around the social engineering operations in the Jamtara district of Jharkhand.[2][3] It was released on Netflix on 10 January 2020.[4] The second season premiered on 23 September 2022.[5]
The story revolves a bunch of small-town young guys who operate a successful phishing racket, but then they come across a corrupt politician who wants a share of their business. Finally there's a newly appointed Police superintendent who wants to fight against them all.
Series overview
No.
overall
Season
No. in
season
Title
Director
Run time (minutes)
1
Season 1
1
Episode 1
Soumendra Padhi
35
2
2
Episode 2
27
3
3
Episode 3
24
4
4
Episode 4
23
5
5
Episode 5
27
6
6
Episode 6
25
7
7
Episode 7
30
8
8
Episode 8
25
9
9
Episode 9
24
10
10
Episode 10
49
11
Season 2
1
Episode 1
42
12
2
Episode 2
37
13
3
Episode 3
37
14
4
Episode 4
40
15
5
Episode 5
40
16
6
Episode 6
41
17
7
Episode 7
47
18
8
Episode 8
54
Production
In 2015, Padhi read an article about the phishing operations carried out by school children in Jamtara district which sparked his interest. He sent his writing team to do research.[6] The character of female SP Dolly Sahu was based on Jamtara's Superintendent Jaya Roy.[7]
Reception
Kirubhakar Purushothaman of The New Indian Express said that the plot of the series is "tightly-written and disseminates information seamlessly, hooking us from the word go."[8] Udita Jhunjunwala of Scroll.in called it "extremely binge-able" and wrote: "The characterisation and dynamics of Jamtara land somewhere in the realm of the Anurag Kashyap meets Tigmanshu Dhulia universe."[9]
Tanisha Bagchi of The Quint wrote: "Had the narrative been more layered, Jamtara would have been a huge feather in the cap for Netflix, which has churned out disappointing originals such as Chopsticks, Drive, Ghost Stories, etc."[10] Rohan Nahar of Hindustan Times gave a positive review and said that the "underdog series washes away the stench of recent big-budget failures" for Netflix.[11]
