Kajol delivers a winning performance, but The Trial could have excelled with sharper writing

Starring: Kajol, Jisshu Sengupta, Alyy Khan, Sheeba Chaddha, Aseem Hattangadi, Gaurav Pandey, Kubbra Sait, and others.

Adapting a TV show as successful and recognisable as The Good Wife takes gumption. In making The Trial, its writers and director have customised the struggles of a smart housewife turned lawyer to an Indian context and created a consistent, strong female protagonist in Noyonika Sengupta (Kajol).

However, it suffers from narrative and structural gaps—probably because of the standard approach in Indian series writing (less is more, keep the writing staff lean). Although engaging, the series could have been more immersive with more attention to the uneven narrative across episodes.

In brief, The Trial picks up some of the high points from the continuous and unbroken narrative of Michelle and Robert King’s super hit show. The opening and closing episodes of the first season are consistent with the original series, and it adapts some characters and incidents to sustain the narrative pace.

Noyonika Sengupta is an ace lawyer and a batch topper at law school, who now runs hearth and home, manages her daughters (Shruti Bisht and Suhani Juneja), and supports her judge husband Rajeev Sengupta (Jisshu Sengupta). But a sex scandal completely upturns her life.

Rajeev is caught on tape having sex with a woman who claims he did dirty work for politicians in exchange for sexual favours. Amid a swarm of hungry cameras and reporters looking to milk the salacious corruption story, Rajeev is arrested, taken to prison, and berated for sullying the name of the judiciary.

While Rajeev’s bank accounts and properties are frozen, Noyonika must survive and protect her daughters. Having moved to a smaller apartment, she starts job hunting, only to be refused by everyone except for her college mate and ex-flame, Vishal (Alyy Khan).

She lands a job as a junior lawyer on six months probation at his firm, where a hawkish and sophisticated legal partner Malini Khanna (Shebba Chaddha) treats her with scepticism. Noyonika now must compete with Dhiraj Paswan (Gaurav Pandey)—a smart, young junior lawyer at the firm—and only one will get the permanent post.

All this while, the firm’s investigator Sana (Kubbra Sait) helps Noyonika navigate the world of courts, police stations and prisons. A tough unapologetic fixer of sorts, Sana holds secrets from the time of having worked with Rajeev.

In the mix is a moody, famous senior partner Kishore Ahuja (Kiran Kumar), set to dismantle the legal firm on a whim, and Ilyas (Aseem Hattangadi), a politically connected friend of Rajeev, who helps the couple out of dire situations.

The plot culminates in a hearing to acquit Rajeev, where Noyonika must use her legal firm and de-prioritise her legal career till his name is cleared.

The finest part of the original series is the nuanced, micro-level detailing of how the protagonist’s life unravels. Julianna Marguiles delivered a brilliant and consistent performance, where she pieces her life back together, manages to survive and flourish as a criminal lawyer and, finally, chooses to shape her professional destiny by becoming a US senator.

Besides her dramatic filmy roles in Karan Johar movies, Kajol has grown as an actor and displayed versatility on OTT.

In The Trial, she has built Noyonika and given her human touches with uncharacteristic restraint and deftness. She holds Noyonika together, almost on the verge of an emotional breakdown but keeping a lid on it, while she navigates single parenting in the age of social media.

There’s an element of authenticity and vulnerability in her angry and emotional moments. Although Noyonika moves viewers, she retains a steely determination to work hard and reclaim her career.

Jisshu Sengupta has delivered the goods of a complex family man—sympathetic and quite unreadable. His moral compass is never clearly visible—an aspect he has carried with finesse.

Aseem Hattangadi, Ally Khan, and Sheeba Chaddha have given effective performances as key characters in this story. Kubbra Sait is good, too.

However, The Trial misses out with reduced conversations and a lack of layered storytelling. It’s always the nuances in writing that set us behind Western originals (Hussain Dalal, Abbas Dalal, Sidharth Kumar).

Unlike the original, characters don’t have enough to say to form bonds of friendship and loyalty. With betrayals, secrets, and shady dealings, the plot is deliciously complicated and close to the real world, especially how the political wheeling-dealing works.

Having said that, gaps in the narrative don’t always justify a character’s reasoning or choice. For instance, the senior partner played by Kumar doesn’t convince anyone with his act of dismantling the legal firm that carries his name. His actions are meant to be erratic, but their impact—despite at the series' midpoint—doesn’t raise the stakes in this drama.

At times, the re-assembling of key events that occur across different seasons of the original series makes this adaptation’s plot seem jumpy. Moreover, the continuous flute-based musical score doesn’t help. Dramas should hold the viewer’s attention with the emotions and responses playing out onscreen, sans belt music tracks.

Sait’s character is stony-faced, always seeking wealth, but the rationale for her actions is never explored and, therefore, loses context.

Director Suparn Verma could get his stars to perform and has successfully replicated the high points of drama in this series, but the narrative’s intensity slows the viewing experience.

Having said that, The Trial is worthwhile to watch as it brings a convincing and well-enacted performance by a solid Indian female heroine for OTT. For Kajol fans, it’s worth binge-watching.

Rating: 3.5/5