‘Guilty Minds’ Review: A Slow Burning Authentic Legal Drama With Diverse Characters And Overarching Plot That Will Keep You Hooked
Law is a vast subject and the thing is that no matter what happens in a case in the investigation, the court is where the drama lies. It’s where things can just take a U-turn. Apart from the facts of a case, the court is where the game depends on the lawyers and how they present things and twist them around for the benefit of their clients. That’s probably why I love the law. There’s scope to do so much and achieve so much. I have practically grown up watching shows like Adaalat, Suits and How To Get Away With Murder. No wonder I ended up choosing a legal degree in the end (even if it was for the sake of knowledge and not practice). And my love for courtroom and legal dramas has increased with time and for good reason. I mean, who doesn’t want to know more about legal strategies and game plans. There’s no way I’m going to miss watching a courtroom drama and to satiate my hunger I decided to binge on Amazon Prime Video’s Guilty Minds. The courtroom drama series stars Mirzapur fame Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra in leading roles. Created and directed by Shefali Bhushan, co-directed by Jayant Digambar Somalkar, Guilty Minds also stars Namrata Sheth, Sugandha Garg, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Satish Kaushik, Benjamin Gilani, Virendra Sharma, Diksha Juneja, Pranay Pachauri, Deepak Kalra and Chitrangada Satrupa in pivotal roles along with Karishma Tanna, Shakti Kapoor, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, Girish Kulkarni, Aritro Rudraneil Banerjee and Saanand Verma making guest appearances. Produced by Karan Grover and co-produced by Antara Banerjee and Naved Farooqui, this legal drama series released on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video on April 22.
The Story Of Guilty Minds
This 10 episodic courtroom drama follows the story of two starkly opposite lawyers Kashaf Quaze and Deepak Rana who happen to be friends but have clashing ideologies when it comes to their profession, law and justice. While Kashaf Quaze, played by Shriya Pilgaonkar, is an idealistic lawyer who comes from a family of lawyers and judges and believes in truth and ethics. She usually takes up cases of those in need. On the other hand, Deepak Rana is a hotshot, flamboyant lawyer with questionable ethics from a big law firm, Khanna Khanna and Associates (KKA). While Kashaf and Deepak are the main characters in the story, there’s a lot more to it than just these two lawyers. The story of Guilty Minds also closely follows other lawyers from KKA like Shubhangi Khanna (played by Namrata Sheth) as she struggles to understand her feelings for Deepak and Shubhurat Khanna (played by Pranay Pachauri) and his jealousy and ego tussle with Deepak. Apart from the courtroom drama, the series also has romance, struggles and loads of diversity. It also explores the complexities of human relationships, love as well as homosexual relationships. Coming to the court cases shown in the web series, there is a great variety. From futuristic cases to those about women’s rights and social issues.
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Cast And Characters
Shriya Pilgaonkar already proved her mettle in acting with Mirzapur and if that wasn’t enough, the actress made sure to impress us all with her stellar performance in Guilty Minds. She brought Kashaf Quaze and her complexities to life with her nuanced acting skills. I cannot think of a better actress to play the role of this idealistic lawyer with demons of her own and let me say this, her character is as relatable as it can get. Being from the legal field myself, I could relate to Kashaf, her thoughts, feelings, emotions and inner chaos.
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Varun Mitra surely won hearts with his portrayal of this flamboyant lawyer with questionable ethics yet strong morals. His portrayal of Deepak Rana is so real that it will make you love the character and hate him at the same time. The actor surely makes for a relatable character much like Kashaf. He will make you feel every emotion he is feeling with his skilful acting. Varun Mitra has outdone himself with his work in Guilty Minds. And let me stress the fact that both Shriya and Varun managed to put in efforts to learn the legal language and understand their characters deeply and it was pretty evident from their acting.
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Also Read: Exclusive: Shriya Pilgaonkar Talks About Playing A Lawyer In ‘Guilty Minds’, Shares She Went To High Court For Research
Shubhangi Khanna, played by Namrata Sheth will take you on a journey to explore love, emotions and the struggles of working with your family while trying to prove yourself professionally. Kashaf’s friend and partner in a law firm, Vandana Kathpalia (played by Sughandha Garg) happens to be a lesbian and in a relationship with another woman and I must say that she is nothing like your mainstream cliché gay woman which sets her apart from all other shows. Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Satish Kaushik as usual impressed with their outstanding performance as LN Khanna and Tejinder Bhall respectively. Pranay Pachauri, who played the role of Shubhrat Khanna managed to do an amazing job at expressing his character’s jealousy and anger against Deepak Rana. He deserves a special mention for his spectacular acting skills. I will also take a moment to point out that budding actor Aritro Rudraneil Banerjee who played the role of an accused in one of the cases, Joel Pinto, delivered an impressive performance in his portrayal of a man fighting to save his creation that took years of effort and hard work.
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Final Verdict
Now, I’ll be honest. This series is not your usual legal or courtroom drama that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. It’s not a thrilling legal drama with twists and turns and nail-biting moments But it is a wholesome drama with explores more than just the law and courtroom strategies. It explores a variety of emotions, complexities of relationships, legal problems, principles, ethics and so much more. More importantly, Guilty Minds has several sub-plots and every character has their own story and arc that grows and evolves with every episode. Every character has their own journey, backstory and character graph which keeps the viewers hooked. It may not be as thrilling as How To Get Away With Murder or as poised as Suits but it has its own merits. The sexual tension and spark between Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra’s characters also gets interesting with every episode but mind you, their relationship also happens to be one of the most complex ones.
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Also Read: ‘Jersey’ Review: A Hard-Hitting, Wholesome Sports Drama That Will Tug At Your Heartstrings. A Must-Watch
Speaking about the cases in the web series, they address different problems and a variety of issues. It ranges from rape cases to women’s rights to futuristic technologies to the showbiz industry to social issues and even murder. Apart from the variety in the cases, the show also offers diversity in terms of the characters in the series. There’s a Muslim character, a Bengali character, a Pahadi character and even a Bihari one. In terms of sexuality also, this show has a lot to offer with its representation of a homosexual character and their relationship. Overall, I will rate Guilty Minds 3.5 stars out of 5 as it makes for a great binge-worthy show while keeping it authentic, from the legal perspective as well as a human perspective. It not only shows lawyers as professionals but also as humans which makes it so much more realistic and wholesome. But mind you, it has a slow burn.
