Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach, the latest season of the popular Disney+ Hotstar anthology series, follows the murder case of a teenage celebrity and stars Pankaj Tripathi, Shweta Basu Prasad, Purab Kohli and Swastika Mukherjee. When this courtroom drama series first came on, its high popularity paved the way for similar shows on the small screen.
Here we pick 5 Indian courtroom drama series on OTT that have brought the Indian legal system into every drawing room.
Guilty Minds
Created by Shefali Bhushan, this eight-episode series stars Shriya Pilgaonkar, Varun Mitra, Sugandha Garg, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Satish Kaushik in lead roles. It focuses on Kashaf (Shriya), Deepak (Varun) and Vandana (Sugandha) — three buddies from the law school who frequently find themselves on opposite sides in the courtroom. While Deepak represents a renowned law firm, Kashaf and Vandana take on class action and humanitarian matters.
Every episode of Guilty Minds explores sensitive topics and shows how those topics affect the main characters’ lives and morals. The show portrays the hard reality and legal nuances that get reflected in the Indian courtroom every day.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
Your Honor
Your Honour is an Indian adaptation of the popular Israeli television series Kvodo. Starring actor Jimmy Shergill in the lead role and directed by Eeshwar Nivas, the series manages to keep the thrill and suspense of the original while exploring familiar Indian themes like family values and judicial corruption.
Set in Ludhiana, Your Honour follows renowned judge Bishan Khosla (Sheirgill), who loses his morals, ethics and sense of justice when his son becomes involved in a hit-and-run case. The upholder of the law decides to compromise his legal integrity, fearing for his son’s safety inside the prison as the accident victim happens to be the son of a vicious gangster, who is behind bars because of Bishan.
Watch it on: Sony Liv
Illegal - Justice, Out of Order
Directed by Sahir Raza, this courtroom drama stars Neha Sharma, Akshay Oberoi, Kubbra Sait, Piyush Mishra and Satyadeep Mishra.
The series centres around Niharika Singh (Sharma), an idealistic lawyer who finds herself trapped in the murky world of criminal law. She is employed by a prestigious law firm run by Janardhan Jaitley (Mishra). However, she is forced to work on other cases in place of the one for which she was employed, these cases involved rape and sexual harassment allegations.
The show is a stirring portrayal of the moral dilemmas that lawyers face in the courtroom. It also sheds light on workplace sexism and gender discrimination encountered by women inside the very realms of the Indian judicial system.
Watch it on: Voot
The Verdict – State vs Nanavati
This series is based on one of the most high-profile cases in Indian judicial history — K. M. Nanavati v. State of Maharashtra — where Indian Naval Command Officer Kawas Nanavati had been accused of the murder of his wife’s lover, Prem Ahuja.
Directed by Shashant Shah, the 10-episode series stars Manav Kaul, Elli AvrRam, Sumeet Vyas and Viraf Patel in lead roles. Although based on a real-life incident, the director has taken creative liberties in showcasing the details of this fascinating case. Set in 1959, The Verdict – State vs Nanavati explores the impact of this case. It is an intriguing courtroom drama that follows jealousy, murder, political drama and media trail.
Watch it on: Alt Balaji
Adalat
The list will be incomplete without the addition of the most prolific fictional advocate of Indian television, K.D. Pathak, portrayed by Ronit Roy in Sony’s television courtroom drama series Adalat. The two seasons of the series comprise 457 episodes. K.D. can get his clients out of any situation which reflects in his 100 per cent success rate. But most importantly, the lawyer stands not for his clients but for justice and justice alone.
Although a legal drama, Adalat has elements of a detective thriller. Apart from Ronit Roy, the series also features Romit Raj, Shraman Jain, Prerna Wanvari, Sunayna Fozdar and Niloufer If you’re in search of a gripping legal drama that is easy to digest and is low on grit, then look no further than Adalat.
Watch it on: Sony Liv and YouTube
