When Neflix launched this mini series last month, thought it would be yet another pseudo comedy series based on hindi heartland that i neither funny nor too serious. But how wrong i was got proved in the very first episode.
"Maamla legal hai", as the name suggests, is based on legal system of India and on lawyers from a fictional town Patparganj, of course set in hindi heartland. With Ravi Kishan being the sitting president of the lawyer association, ably supported by his "chamcha" duo named as "law" and "order", with sane guidance from Munshiji, the only normal character in this otherwise wacko unit, the kind of cases and issues that crop up in their court, all of them being real life situations inspired, the 8 episode series, leaves you wanting for more. Nidhi Bisht as the unscrupulous yet vulnerable lawyer, whose sole ambition is to get a chamber of her own and how she goes about "buttering" her seniors and superiors, is a hoot. I thought she would be the villi character alongside Kishan, but surprisingly the entire series is carried forward by them, who turned out to be the lead players. For all her fashionista appeal and costumes, armed with her resolve to take matters seriously and abide the law by the letter to help poor people, i mistook Naila Grewal's character to be that of the heroine. But if there is a second season spin off coming up, her back story has lot of potential. Likewise, majority of the characters on every episode have so much detailing and back story potential that, this can very well grow into a couple of more seasons.
The kind of cases that are taken up on each episode, right from the size of the name board kept by the association president, the monkey menace and especially the legally approved wacky solution for that issue, the foul mouthed parrot, the moonlighting/gaslighting/multitasking lawyer and his escapades with his clients, each one of them is really quirky and only real life can throw such funtastic situations which even the best of creative minds can't cook up. My personal favorite being, how despite having an eye witness identify a gang of robbers as the culprit, the lawyer gets them out of the case on a simple legal issue!!! The terrifying part being that this has happened in real life!!!
I loved the series and it felt like the good old golden days of Doordarshan where every series or story would be based on common/ simple people or in other words mango (aam) people and their every day struggles. Add a dash of humour to it along side some fantastic performances, you have got a winner. This series reminded me of Nukkad for its weirdo bunch of characters and hope to see the next season quite soon. Maamla legal hai is definitely worth watching hai.
Comments
Patparganj is a suburb of Delhi, I thought. Interesting that there is even the concept of "legal" in India anymore. With dilapidated courts taking 27.6 years to do anything, will anybody in current day India even bother turning to courts ?