Guilty Minds is a courtroom drama series that follows the life of two lawyers who are encompassed with challenging cases and conflicting personal lives. The series is now streaming on Prime Video.
Story
Kashaf Quaze and Deepak Rana- two competent lawyers as well as college friends who also have subtle feelings for each other, often find each other in a conflict in the room of justice.
Kashaf Quaze (Shriya Pilgaonkar) comes from a well-reputed family of lawyers, and her father is a respectable Supreme court judge. She likes to live by her family’s virtues of greatness and sticks to her moral principles while advocating cases.
Her minimalistic law firm, which she owns with Vandana as a partner, is conscientious in taking up the side of the truth.
On the contrary, Deepak Rana (Varun Mitra) is an ambitious prodigy who becomes a senior partner at the Khanna and Khanna Law Firm, owned by L N Khanna. His ideologies stand for fighting for the client irrespective of what is right and wrong, and thus, he always plays on the grey area.
With a few cases creating a backdrop drama from the beginning to the end, every episode deals with a new case. As different cases challenge the two lawyers, they want to win makes one do unethical things.
With this, the story leads to an engaging approach, and both the lawyers keep following their principles of right and wrong.
Performance
As engaging as the storyline is, the cast dictates a fabulous screen presence.
Shriya Pilgaonkar as an ideologically compelling lawyer, with her captivating dialogue delivery and the perfect emotional quotient, rocks the role of Kashaf Quaze.
From confidently defending the truth in court to completely breaking down after learning secrets from her close ones, her performance never fails to draw attention.
Whereas Varun Mitra, the ambitious and persuasive “learned friend,” delivers a stellar performance with his sarcastic courtroom scenes while fighting within the grey.
Meanwhile, Sugandha Garg and Namrata Seth did a good job with more screen timing. Still, Satish Kaushik as Tejinder Bhalla steals the show and becomes a personal favourite with comparatively less screen time. However, Diksha Janeja as Riya Singh had the potential to be better.
Positives
Considering the transmedia storytelling, the series is capable enough to keep the viewer anticipating the next episode with smooth interconnection between the courtroom drama and personal life conflicts with commendable directing.
Some credit goes to smooth editing and a toned-down colour palette.
The commendable realism in the courtroom pays off for all the time invested in watching the series.
Be it the variable and realistic set design or the intense courtroom conflict where the complexities of every case are logically derived from black and white to grey- a truth behind every conflict. However, an interesting backdrop of comic relief concerning the stand-up comedian in the bar is also praise-worthy.
But what makes Guilty Minds a must-watch series would be its narrative comprehensiveness in arguing the essential conflicts of contemporary society.
Addressing consent, LGBTQ, climate change, the rise of AI, cyber scams, fetal sex-determination, dirty politics, all in one 10-episode web series, is a meritorious job. Along with that, the inclusive representation of gender, caste, and religion is an inclination toward appreciation.
Negatives
Although the primary two-layered stories of the lead actors were smoothly interconnected, the narrative of personal life demanded more intensity. Something that the writer must consider working on if there is a season 2.
Meanwhile, trying to incorporate every issue in society in one go is quite an attempt that does not fit in. For instance, Sunanda’s interaction with her boss highlights the fact of gender politics in the workplace.
Another unfitting fact remained the title of the show, “Guilty Minds.” Although capable of being called an engaging and thought-provoking show, the justification of the title is still under the shade.
Verdict
Guilty Minds is a must-watch series because of its engaging and thought-provoking writing that also caters to equal representation in the form of strong women characters and a backdrop LGBTQ+ community. Moreover, the show talks about very important issues in our society. Nonetheless, it misses the title of a great show with some negatives.
Rating: 3.5/5
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