Guilty Minds streaming on Amazon Prime Video is engrossing. It is created and directed by Shefali Bhushan and co-directed by Jayant Digambar Somalkar. Shefali Bhushan is from a family of lawyers and this series is something inspired from her own background of belonging. Every episode opens with a new legal case that looks hand picked and inspired from the very famous cases in the legal arena. By that, the series has very attractively aimed at winning the attention of the audience. The show stars Shriya Pilgaonkar, Varun Mitra, Namrata Sheth and Sugandha Garg in primary roles. We also get to see familiar faces in the role of other parallel characters; Karishma Tanna, Shakti Kapoor, Deepak Kalra, Kulbhushan Kharbandha and Satish Kaushik to name a few.
Guilty Minds is a legal drama that covers quite many aspects of the life of modern day successful lawyers of India, their work culture and the dilemmas that they go through in fighting for their clients. Every lawyer has an underlining principle with which they work. Kashaf played by Shriya Pilgaonkar is a pro-bono lawyer and the daughter of a Supreme court judge. She is a moralistic individual who makes her father proud by putting her best in all the cases that she takes to provide justice to her client. Deepak Rana (Varun Mitra) on the other hand is a partner in KK Associates who has made it as a big shot, quite impressively, in a firm run by the Khanna family. There is jealousy, there is romance, sibling rivalry, kinship, family dilemmas and politics.
The first episode of the series might look very cliché and slow while you are still trying to figure out the idea of the makers. You will however be attached to the storyline by the end of the second episode. Apart from the cases that will interest the audience, it is also the personal chemistry and friendships that keeps the series moving. In the backdrop of all the courtroom sequences, is each character’s personal story. The script has been shaped to bring the essence of the personalities of the lawyers in a way that you connect with them. The light is also on the compelling choice of cases that the show brings to light. It covers almost all the famous legal beats of rape, murder, copyrights infringement, video game addiction and the crimes associated with it. Not to forget the driverless car accident case that one connects with the surge of similar technology in our lives. And in all of them, the show very well manages to give a non-judgemental view on the approach of the lawyers.
As viewers who like watching legal dramas and such shows from the west, this web series is definitely one of a few takes on the real picture of the Indian Courts. Apart from the fast dismissal of court cases, everything else is relatable. For so many years with so many different takes in Indian Cinema on ‘Court-Kachehri’, Guilty Minds makes a place ahead of them. We call it a no-drama legal drama.
The crux of the show is in digging deep and that does make us realise that most of the things are infact grey. And nobody is purely evil or purely moral. As Deepak also outrightly advocates for the greys, as he says, there is no black and white. And Kashaf is more of the contrary idea. It is quite gripping to see them lead in their own ways to catch hold of what we call the truth of the guilty mind.
‘Guilty Minds’ is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
