The series Pill on Jio Cinema dives deep into the dark side of the medical world. It shows how, in the pursuit of profit, many doctors, industry leaders, and politicians turn to corruption and ignore the well-being of ordinary people. This corruption leads to dangerous drugs being sold in the market. These drugs, backed by powerful authorities and often approved after fake clinical trials, end up causing severe harm. People suffer from the side effects or even die, while the companies behind these drugs face no consequences. Instead, they blame the patients’ pre-existing conditions and claim the drugs had no negative impact. Forever Cure Pharma is the fictional company at the center of this similar scandal in Pill. The series raises the question: Will this corrupt company ever be exposed, or will the rich continue to get richer while the poor suffer? Riteish Deshmukh plays Prakash, a Deputy Medicine Controller in India, who teams up with a health inspector played by Anshul Chauhan and an investigative journalist named Noor played by Akshat Chauhan. Together, they are determined to uncover the truth about Forever Cure Pharma. Will they succeed in exposing the company’s misdeeds, or will it be another case of the powerful escaping justice? To find out, you’ll have to read this recap of the series Pill season 1.
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Prakash and Noor team up?
We meet Prakash, a small-time doctor with immense potential. At the beginning of the series, he received a promotion to become the medicine controller in Ghaziabad for the Medicine Authority of India. Although this secure government job was a great opportunity for him, it didn’t offer him any significant advantages. On the other hand, the company “Forever Cure Pharma” and its employees enjoyed various benefits by buying off everyone, from wealthy businessmen to politicians, doctors, and even high-ranking government officials who were Prakash’s seniors in the Medicine Authority. “Forever Cure Pharma” falsified drug trial results to get their harmful drugs approved for the market. They used false patient names, and tampered with data to indicate no harmful side effects had been caused by the company’s drugs. Where, in reality, their drugs caused severe harm, including blindness and death, these reports were never made public. The company focused solely on increasing its market value, disregarding people’s health. And of course, their corrupt agenda succeeded for many years with the help of politicians and doctors.
When Prakash started his new role in Ghaziabad, he noticed something was wrong with the reports. He observed a pattern that indicated the reports had been fabricated. He tried to discuss it with his senior authorities, but they either ignored him or warned him not to interfere. But you know what? Prakash didn’t believe in turning a blind eye. On the other hand, around the same time, a health inspector also informed him about how her team tried to inspect Forever Cure Pharma’s medical trials, but the company hid evidence, destroyed documents before her eyes, and erased CCTV footage. So it further proves the corruption of the company. As they dug deeper, they saw an investigative journalist named Noor post on social media against Forever Cure Pharma. Noor had found evidence in a dumpster showing the company has been faking drug trials. He had been beaten by the company’s thugs when he approached doctors for more information. These doctors had been bribed with expensive gifts and worked secretly for the company. Noor had lost his own mother to these harmful drugs and couldn’t bear to see others suffer as she did. Seeing Noor’s explosive social media post, Prakash realized they could work together to bring them to justice. Prakash knew Noor might have crucial evidence, and together, they could expose the corrupt dealings of Forever Cure Pharma and those backing the crime.
What happened to Ashish Khanna?
Here, Prakash and Noor weren’t the only ones aware of the corruption at Forever Cure Pharma. Ashish Khanna, the head microbiologist at the company, was aware that false reports were used to approve their drug trials and how this was done to release harmful drugs to make a lot of money. Ashish tried multiple times to discuss this issue with the higher authorities at Forever Cure Pharma, but they always shut him down. As more people came forward, sharing how these harmful drugs had ended the lives of their loved ones, the company realized they were in a risky position. They couldn’t afford to have an employee like Ashish expose their false drug trials. So, they accused Ashish of sending emails with the company’s secrets to a rival company and called him a whistleblower. They had planted fake evidence against him. Despite Ashish’s continuous denials, they didn’t care and threatened to call the police. Ashish had no choice but to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He was fired from his job and eventually fell into depression. This situation showed just how dangerous Forever Cure Pharma really was.
Were they finally successful in exposing the company?
Prakash went to great lengths to expose Forever Cure Pharma’s corruption. One night at 2 AM, he secretly tested the company’s drugs in a lab in the hope of gathering enough evidence to bring them down and save lives. However, since he had no approval to conduct these tests, especially at night, he couldn’t prove the company’s wrongdoing. Instead, Prakash lost his job and was banned from entering any medical institution for six months, along with a penalty of 2 lakh rupees. He was shocked at how injustice thrived while those committing the crimes faced no consequences. Determined to fight back, Prakash decided to take the case to the Supreme Court. He made a plan to trap the company. He sent Noor to the doctors working under Forever Cure Pharma to inquire about the soon-to-be-launched cancer drug, as they knew the doctors would inform the company.
Prakash set up a lab, and as expected, the company’s people came to destroy the equipment. Little did they know, their actions were recorded on CCTV. If they had nothing to hide, why were they trying to demolish the lab equipment to prevent the drug tests? Despite this evidence and interviews with people who had suffered or lost loved ones due to the drugs, the court initially couldn’t find Forever Cure Pharma guilty. Why? Because the CEO, Brahma Gill, was clever enough to bribe and threaten the victims, he made them too scared to testify against them in court. But remember Ashish, the former head microbiologist who was fired? Even though the company tried to silence him, he managed to escape his house to give Prakash and Noor a pen drive holding evidence against the company. Even though the company’s henchmen tried to stage a road accident to kill Ashish and destroy the evidence on the pen drive, fortunately, another pen drive was found hidden in his grandmother’s locket. This drive proved that Forever Cure Pharma had conducted false drug trials, which have caused many deaths, and showed that six of their drugs were extremely harmful and should never have been approved by the Medicine Authority of India. The evidence also revealed that high-ranking officials like MCGI Raman Venkatesh and a Bikash Party leader in Punjab named Dilbag Barar were all aware of the crimes but were silenced by bribes from the CEO of the company, Brahma Gill. Their greed for money over justice led to hundreds of deaths.
So, in the end, Prakash and his team found victory. We see that the crucial evidence finally led the court to find Forever Cure Pharma guilty. Their harmful medicines were banned from the market, brought justice to the victims, and marked a significant victory against corruption in the medical world. The high-ranking officials were also arrested. Despite being a modest government employee, Prakash couldn’t be bought off by the rich and corrupt. Maybe their integrity and determination led to his success. At the end of Pill season 1, we see Prakash driving an old car to his daily job at the Medical Authority of India. This might be just the beginning for him. In the future, he may expose more falsified data and bring down many more corrupt companies. Prakash’s story shows that even an ordinary person can make a significant impact by standing up for justice.
