Too Many subplots play spoilsport
Background
‘Many legal battles are not fought in courtrooms but they are also fought in open outside courtrooms’. Voot Select’s recent web series Illegal produced by Irada Entertainment is one such battle which traverses through many human emotions and obdurate legal procedures culminating into a prolonged fight for justice and truth.
Illegal which was named as Law and Honour earlier exposes the chinks in the legal system and how law can be manipulated and even strangulated by few powerful people to fulfil their vexed interests.
Storyline
Niharika Singh (Neha Sharma, who is the leading lady in Ram Charan’s debut film Chirutha) is a budding lawyer in Bangalore with a haunting past who joins the famous law firm of JJ, Janardhan Jaitley (Piyush Mishra) in Delhi. There she is entrusted with the case of fighting against capital punishment of Meher (Kubbra Sait) who is sentenced to death in a multiple murder case.
Another case involving Neeraj (Ankit Gupta) who happens to be a friend of Akshay (Akshay Oberoi) son of JJ for sexual harassment and rape against one of his employees Vartika (Aditi Tailang) crops up and JJ wanted Niharika to handle this case and defend Neeraj.
The story progresses with many twists and turns unraveling many subplots throughout the series. One of them being the relationship between Akshay and Niharika and another is connected to her estranged father Surya Shekawat (Deepak Tijori) who incidentally is the father of rape accused Neeraj.
While crusading against capital punishment, Niharika face several trials and tribulations, some are self-inflicted and some are initiated by JJ who consistently changes the game plan to suit his own interests. In the case of Neeraj, Niharika has to face music as witnesses turn hostile in the very last minute and the evidence produced by her turns out to be tampered pushing her into a tight corner where she concedes the defeat thus giving JJ gain an upper hand with his unscrupulous moves.
JJ is somebody who could go to any extent to manipulate and destroy anything or anyone, including his family members that come his way with the help of his henchman Randeep (Vicky Arora) who follows the instructions given by JJ with clinical precision. He uses Niharika as a pawn in his armor to play the dreadful game by overriding all rules, a game that catapults him into a more powerful and invincible position.
How Niharika survives the battle with the help of her rival lawyer (Satyadeep Mishra) who happens to be her savior and how she takes up the mantle to fight against ignoble practices of JJ is what the remaining story of Illegal is about.
Artiste Performances
Neha Sharma has delivered a memorable performance with exceptional acting and stunning glamour. She oozes confidence in every frame and carries the character of Niharika, a sincere, upright and knowledgeable lawyer with tremendous conviction and elegance.
Kubbra Sait as Meher, the convict who face extreme torture for fifteen years in jail has pulled out great performance in a deglamorized role.
For multi-talented Piyush Mishra, the character of JJ has given yet another opportunity to display his acting prowess which he has leveraged with great maturity to the benefit of the story line.
Akshay Oberoi is getting better and better and there is great variation between his earlier outing as Yudi in Hum Tum and Themand now as Akshay in Illegal. He has good potential through which he can do complete justice to any role and as Akshay he is equally brilliant.
Deepak Tijori, Kitu Gidwani, Satyadeep and Parul Gulati (who is last seen in the recent The Raiker Case) have done extremely well in their roles to make Illegal an engrossing affair.
Technical Departments
Nirmal Pandya’s background music is excellent and elevates the narrative to a great extent.
Sameer Arya’s photography is apt and gels with mood of the story.
Reshu Nath’s story has the spark but director Sahir Raza has failed to convert it into a gripping narrative on screen due to presence of many subplots and moreover poor editing creates more confusion through all those subplots which keep on cropping up quite often hampering the flow of main storyline to a larger extent.
Our honest feeling
Illegal should have been definitely much better. The concept of capital punishment and sexual harassment could not be elevated in right proportions to sustain interest of the viewer.
The story of Illegal had the shades of recently released film the much acclaimed, Guilty featuring Kiara Advani as far as conflict between rape and consensual sex is concerned but Illegal doesn’t manage to expose the kind of distress and humiliation that are attached with sexual harassment to the satisfaction of the subject it is based on but certainly it makes an attempt that will not go unnoticed.
Illegal though good in the beginning and halfway through, it fizzled out during the end due to appalling execution. The intensity element behind rape of Vartika gets reduced gradually and final verdict in this case leaves everyone disappointed to some extent. This gives room for many unanswered questions and second season is not ruled out to find out answers for all these questions.
The relationship dimension between Akshay and Niharika is another subplot which proved detrimental to the flow of gripping story line as we thought that the show should have continued focusing more on legal wrangles and darker side of the law rather probing the relationship between the two.
Capital punishment and sexual harassment are different subjects, by mixing both in Illegal, irreversible damage was done, as balancing the story between the two turned out to be quite cumbersome resulting in the deviation from the objectives the show wanted to achieve.
Those who love court dramas and to know how truth can be manipulated and paraded as a fact by some influential people in the garb of law and justice can watch Illegal to get certain awareness about such criminals in black robes.
