Guilty Minds review: Amazon series brings refreshing realism to courtroom dramas but ends up as an uneven show

Watching Amazon Prime Video’s new legal drama Guilty Minds often feels like watching two different shows. On one hand is the crisp, smart, and (for a change) realistic portrayal of happenings inside courtrooms. But on the other hand is the story of the lawyers’ personal relationships, which feels like it has been conceived by someone with only a vague understanding of human emotions. Guilty Minds lies between this crisp legal drama and hammy emotional drama. It had the makings of a great show but didn’t quite get there, despite the best efforts of a competent cast. Also read: Shriya Pilgaonkar recalls working with Shah Rukh Khan in Fan: ‘Fans’ screams were so loud, we couldn’t hear each other’

Guilty Minds is a legal drama centred on two lawyers. Friends from law college, almost but never quite lovers, Kashaf Quaze (Shriya Pilgaonkar) and Deepak Rana (Varun Mitra) usually find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Kashaf, forever the idealist, takes up the cases of the common man while the ambitious Deepak is a partner at a top law firm representing the big shots. How their cases and their personal lives intertwine propels the narrative forward. Rounding off the support ensemble are Shubhangi Khanna (Namrata Sheth) the scion of the law firm where Deepak works, and her cousin Subhrat Khanna (Pranay Pachauri), who wants the ‘outside’ out of his ‘family firm’. And Kashaf has on her side her trusted partner Vandana (Sugandha Garg).

It is refreshing to see the courtrooms of India depicted as how they are, and hats off to showrunner Shefali Bhushan for that. Having spent her life in one of the foremost legal families in India, she knows the Indian judicial system better than most in the entertainment world, and it shows. There are no witness boxes, no melodramatic arguments, no over-the-top shayarana Urdu couplets by lawyers, and the judges are more than just mute spectators. Of course, there are creative liberties, but the show understands the processes and realities of Indian law, which is more than what can be said of most Hindi legal films and shows that have come before it.

Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the show is how it manages to pick sensitive subjects like consent, gaming addiction, sex determination, and even the pros and cons of self-driving cars. But nowhere does it take sides or pass a moral judgement. It merely lays out the facts and states that in between the right and the wrong–the white and the black–lies a multitude of greys. Viewers will have opinions on the cases presented in the show and people will debate on who was right and who was wrong. In that sense, it is a good–and entertaining–portrayal of the realities of our legal system.

But the show falters outside the courtroom. When the characters are not lawyering or investigating, they appear slightly two-dimensional. It is infuriating, at times, to see everyone behave like irrational teenagers, while the show has spent episodes setting them up as competent lawyers. Stereotypes galore in the narrative, from the coke-addled carefree son of an industrialist to the starlet looking for cheap publicity. While many of the characters are well-rounded, others come across as incomplete, rendering their interactions slightly meaningless. In addition, at times, the show tries to shed its realism for over-the-top melodramatic appeals. Lines about ‘insaaf ki ladai’ (battle for justice) from the lawyers seem so out of place in a show that is otherwise so crisp.

The actors have done justice to their roles. The show hinges on its two leads–Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra. And both of them have done a commendable job even if at times, they look too young for the part. Not the actors maybe but the characters. It sometimes feels inconceivable why two 30-year-olds would be handling the country’s most-talked-about cases. The show tries to explain it saying one is a prodigy and the other the daughter of a Supreme Court judge. But the suspension of disbelief is hard in a realistic show. The supporting cast does its job well too. The cameos–including Shakti Kapoor, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, and Karishma Tanna–bring some star power to the show.

But for me the stars of the show are three actors in small roles. Satish Kaushik shines as Tejinder Bhalla, the liquor baron who oscillates from jovial to menacing with such ease that it is scary. As Vandana’s girlfriend Sunanda, Chitrangada Satarupa delivers a monologue worthy of applause, talking about acceptance for the LGBTQ community without making it needlessly melodramatic. But for me, the find of the show and the most delightful character is the private investigator Parvathy, played wonderfully by Sukitha Aiyar. She lights up the screen whenever she is on it. I hope there is a season 2 of Guilty Minds and we get to see more of her.

Guilty Minds is a good show but one that could have been a lot better. It has its heart in the right place but doesn’t really know how to navigate two worlds. It paints a compelling picture of the lives of lawyers, something shows like The Practice have done beautifully in the West. But unlike The Practice, it does not know how to bring out the non-lawyer human side of its characters to the fore. And therein lies my objection (pun intended). Given the promise it has shown, there is likely to be a second season. Well, let’s just hope that if there is one, this time, the minds behind it leave no grounds for any reasonable doubt about the show’s quality.

Created and directed by Shefali Bhushan and co-directed by Jayant Digambar Samalkar, Guilty Minds released on Amazon Prime Video on April 22.

Series: Guilty Minds

Creator: Shefali Bhushan

Cast: Shriya Pilgaonkar, Varun Mitra, Namrata Sheth, Sugandha Garg, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Satish Kaushik, Benjamin Gilani, Virendra Sharma, Diksha Juneja, Pranay Pachauri, Deepak Kalra and Chitrangada Satrupa