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We’ve had, in the past, court-room based dramas in film and TV, some more laced with humour than others. But the eight-part series ‘Maamla Legal Hai’ differentiates itself from the crowd by foregrounding its comic aspect, and keeping it there: I’m going to dub it a court-com.
Directed by Rahul Pandey, and written by Kunal Aneja and Saurabh Khanna, the series picks on the salient points of real-life cases (‘satya durghatnaon pe aadharit’), some funny, some plain bizarre, with a couple of poignant elements thrown in, all things that make us human.
What would you do if a parrot gives you ‘gandi gaalis’? Would the hurt parties sort it out by themselves, or haul the feathered culprit into the courtroom? Delhi’s Patparganj District Court is where this case, believe it or faint, takes place, and you are left smiling after you listen to the parrot’s lawyer pleading in its defence. Getting-married-and-enjoying-conjugal-bliss in prison, under legal supervision, becomes the fulcrum around which one of the most effective episodes revolves: you may be in jail, but you may still have desires.
This is the kind of courthouse where people with LLB degree-holders of varied hues rub shoulders with touts, and other dodgy characters who form the ecosystem of the lower courts. Where the riff-raff and the meek wash up, a microcosm of a certain section of society. Where cops and lawyers exchange fisticuffs (true story) and slogans, have endless rounds of samosa- and- tea, and give the poor plaintiffs a royal run-around.
The bunch of ‘kaala coat’ types we meet here are very different from the suave legal eagles who inhabit the higher courts of the Capital. One such hoity-toity type who throws around words like ‘preposterous’and ‘egregrious’, shows up, and is quite properly shown his place. Only the lucky few like Tyagi Ji (Kishan) have chambers, a wise father-like figure (Rajoria) in attendance, an almost-equal colleague (Batra) to bounce ideas off, and a couple of hapless interns to push around.
The rest, including the feisty Sujata Didi (Bisht), bide their time, in the hope of a proper space as behoves a proper lawyer. ‘Maamla Legal Hai’ doesn’t draw the line at showing us dodgy, smarmy lawyers, but it also takes care to balance things out by the other kind: the swish Harvard law graduate Ananya Shroff (Grewal) is a bleeding-heart do-gooder who learns the lesson of practicality but remains innately decent. Tyagi Ji’s arc develops the most– from a near-goon who will do anything to win an election, to the exalted position of a judgeship– from where his hidden nobility may find a way to rescue him.
Not all the episodes work; a couple are lax, and in a few of places the jokey tone is either at odds with the seriousness of the case, or doesn’t land. But by the time it ended, the series, and its solid ensemble cast, had won me over. Anant Vijay, last seen in 12th Fail, is here as court manager, who fancies himself a desi ‘Donna’ (Paulsen from ‘Suits’, no less). The ladies are fine, though you wish Azmi had more to do. Kishan is a revelation: when he gets a few quiet moments, the real actor in him peeks through. The only one who felt underutilized is Yashpal Sharma: will that be rectified in season 2?
Maamla Legal Hai cast: Ravi Kishan, Nidhi Bisht, Anant Vijay Joshi, Naila Grewal, Yashpal Sharma, Anjum Batra, Vijay Rajoria
Maamla Legal Hai director: Rahul Pandey
Maamla Legal Hai rating: 2.5 stars
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