The Trial Season 2 review: The best moments of Kajol’s legal drama take place outside the courtroom

Most of the cast returns. Chadha is still clad in the most eye-catching of saris, Khan is now in a relationship (Pamela Bhutoria) but his soft spot for Noyonika is intact. Ace investigator Sana Shaikh (Kubbra Seth) is as sharp. Rajiv, now a serious contender in state politics, and a rival of the current CM Narayani Dhole (Sonali Kulkarni) in the coming elections, is contrite, and on his best behaviour at home, while his aide (Aseem Hattangady) keeps him under close watch. Their daughters, now slightly older, are engaged in Gen Z stuff, which also leads to one of the cases, in which two ‘influencers’ are locked in a struggle for eyeballs while rolling their own.

Amongst the new entrants are, in no particular order, a senior (Karanvir Sharma) who thinks Noyonika is ‘too emotional’, an investigator who keeps trying to downsize Sana, and a couple of others. There’s also veteran Asrani — as a lawyer for the ungodly, of course — who keeps fetching up to court in a fancy car. And the actors who play their parts in cases which range from a high-powered molester of young women, a young couple so in love that they will not come clean on which one is to blame in a drug-related killing, corrupt builder mafias responsible for the ill-health of those who got suckered into buying flats constructed on filthy land-fills.

Like the last time around, the better parts of the series do not play out in the court-rooms, but in the living rooms of the characters, as they thrash out personal conflicts. Sengupta is a little more lively in this season, as he goes head-to-head with aamchi Marathi leader Dhole who goes on and on about ‘outsiders’; Khan and Chadha are as watchable in over-explained writing that never really matches their talent.

A couple of sharp elements lift the series a bit. Dispatching officials to ‘raid’ Sengupta’s residence mirrors the rampant misuse of the enforcement teams in real-life; body-shaming via viral videos get slapped down; a comment on the country’s ‘bigadti hui democracy’ hits, making up for the ‘smoking kills’, as soon as characters light up but discreetly, and all those anti- alcohol scrawls as soon as people start doing shots in bars.

 

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But the larger problem still remains. Kajol is competent, but as the headliner of the show, is always head and shoulders above the other characters — when it comes to telling a client good news, she is the one striding down the corridor; when it comes to bidding a dodgy colleague good-bye, she is the one who has the last word. Everyone else knows their place.

The Trial Season 2 cast: Kajol Devgan, Jisshu Sengupta, Alyy Khan, Sheeba Chaddha, Sonali Kulkarni, Aseem Hattangady, Kubbra Sait, Gaurav Pandey, Karanvir Sharma, Pamela Bhutoria, Kenneth Desai, Santanu Ghatak
The Trial Season 2 director: Umesh Bist
The Trial Season 2 rating: 2 stars