“Jiska koi nahi hota, uska vakeel hota hai,” a lawyer tells a distressed applicant in a scene from Netflix’s Maamla Legal Hai. Lawyers make for fascinating characters because in a landscape underserved by justice, they represent the only form of hope. The plucky, scheming lawyer has been a mainstay of Hindi cinema, and he returns in this show, not as the vanguard of righteousness but as the quirky, at times inane symbol of dysfunction. We have seen this in the Jolly LLB franchise, but Maamla Legal Hai finds its footing in episodic absurdity. It’s gloriously turbulent, silly and charming as an exploration of suburban chaos, ineptitude and sheer madness.
Ravi Kishan plays V.D. Tyagi, the president of the bar association at Patparganj court. Tyagi, hilariously employs two assistants named ‘Law’ and ‘Order’. Neither is smart or educated enough to fill the boots offered. Tyagi pines for a higher standing in elite judicial circles, something he chases with craven, often desperate methods. He can’t speak English, so he writes down big words in Hindi to casually drop them in conversations.
A number of colourful characters populate the court premise. Nidhi Bisht plays Sujata Negi, a hustler who has learned her way around the dust that makes up for opportunity on the side-lines. Anant Joshi (12th Fail) plays Vishwas Pandey, a mysteriously brazen court officer. To the uniformly destitute pool of hustlers and peddlers, the story introduces the Harvard educated Ananya (Naila Grewal) as a poking device.
Though the predominant arc of the series concerns itself with Tyagi’s rather blunt quest for power and fame, the show deals with absurdities of the court premise in endearing detail. From abusive parrots to monkey-repelling humans, fiction merges with the bizarre reality of a disorderly court. Each episode concludes with news clippings that have inspired what at first feel like exaggerations. You’d think this cast was put together as a sort of off-beat excursion into small-town gimmickry, but there is sincerity to the performances, and nuance to the madness on display.
Directed by Rahul Pandey, Maamla Legal Hai belongs to a long line of TV shows (including the great Office Office) that looks at institutional dysfunction on a molecular level. It can feel like parody because it defers the more humbling takeaways from its many plot devices – the sheer absurdity of the Indian judiciary – but is self-controlled enough to reel that madness in. These are, after all, just men and women trying to make a respectable living out of a profession that seems to no longer offer any. The aspirations are large, the means hopelessly pedestrian. Even a court officer mentions the wildly popular sitcom Suits as inspiration. It points to the tragicomedy of dreaming from within the pits of despair and dysfunction. Nobody looks like they know a thing or two unless something inside them breaks or is kindled. To which effect, the series also retains an innocence that thankfully prevents it from becoming bleak.
Ravi Kishan, so ably cast as the main man here, displays his acting prowess in a role that for once calls out the ‘Hindi’ actor in him. What a week this is for Kishan also playing a key role in Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies. It’s incredible that the actor’s very specific style of acting - that mischievous gaze mixed with the syntax of hinterland politeness - has never really been asked to do much else. Here he is arresting as this naive, but hungry lawyer who doesn’t mind bending a rule or two to get ahead. In fact, the Patparganj court is teeming with men and women willing to extend the farce for the chance to court relative success. This absurdity doesn’t only manifest in judicial process – the lethargy of it all – but also in the personal lives of the ones pursuing it. An absentee lawyer, for example, is hilariously traced back to a facial and massage parlour that he runs on the side. He makes money, quite literally by sitting on cases. It’s at once abhorrent, peculiar and funny; the prickly truth as digestible satire.
Maamla Legal Hai is surprisingly watchable. It races through its 30-minute episodes and is arrayed by both social and political commentary that must really be taken in the spirit of a comical slingshot. Everything it throws at you, it eventually takes back and moves on. The weird, the downright absurd are all fair play and to the creators’ credit, on the money for the most part. The fact that Kishan is the most high-profile face of the ensemble, possibly only elevates the streetwise nature of the show’s language and diction. The Harvard educated diva, in fact, only tips the balance. Her bemusement and awe are our window into this comically self-deprecatory world. Think about it too seriously and you might recoil. Watch it for its workplace banter, pitiable economics and culture of clumsiness and it’s more rewarding than you’d expect.
Maamla Legal Hai is now streaming on Netflix.
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