The Trial (Indian TV series)

The Trial
Genre	Legal drama Political drama
Based on	The Good Wife by Robert King Michelle King
Written by	Hussain Dalal Abbas Dalal Siddharth Kumar
Directed by	Season 1: Suparn Varma Season 2: Umesh Bist
Starring	Kajol Jisshu Sengupta Kubbra Sait Sheeba Chaddha Alyy Khan Gaurav Pandey
Theme music composer	Sangeet-Siddharth
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer	Suparn Verma
Producers	Ajay Devgn Deepak Dhar Rajesh Chadha Parag Desai
Cinematography	Season 1: Manoj Soni Season 2: Kuldeep Mamania
Running time	39-46 minutes
Production companies	Banijay Asia Ajay Devgn FFilms
Original release
Network	Disney+ Hotstar
Release	14 July 2023 (2023-07-14)

The Trial: Pyaar Kaanoon Dhokha is an Indian legal drama television series streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. An adaptation of Robert King and Michelle King's The Good Wife and features Kajol in the lead role. The series is centered on a housewife who, after 10 years, starts working at a law firm to support her family when her husband gets imprisoned.^[1][2]

The series was announced in July 2022 with principal photography commencing the following month.^[3] It was released on Disney+ Hotstar on 14 July 2023.

Premise

Noyonika Sengupta, a law school graduate, is a housewife who gave up her career to look after her children. When her husband, Rajeev Sengupta, an additional judge is arrested for a sex and corruption scandal, she starts working as a junior lawyer at a law firm to support her family. Noyonika now has to balance both her work and family life while also having to deal with the humiliation she faces from her husband's scandal.

Cast

Main

• Kajol as Noyonika Sengupta
• Jisshu Sengupta as Rajiv Sengupta: Noyonika's husband
• Alyy Khan as Vishal Chaubey
• Sheeba Chaddha as Malini Khanna: A name partner at the firm.
• Kubbra Sait as Sana Shaikh: A consultant at the firm.
• Gaurav Pandey as Dheeraj Paswan
• Shruti Bisht as Ananya Sengupta: Noyonika and Rajeev's older daughter.
• Suhani Juneja as Anaira Sengupta: Noyonika and Rajeev's younger daughter.

Recurring

• Beena Banerjee as Seema Sengupta: Rajiv's mother.
• Aseem Hattangadi as Illyas Khan: Family friend of the Senguptas.
• Aamir Ali as Pradeep Shinde: Police officer and Sana's love interest.
• Atul Kumar as Daksh Rathod: TV news reporter
• Manasvi Mamgai as Juhi Bhatia
• Rituraj Singh as Sharad Jhadav
• Kiran Kumar as Kishore Ahuja: A name partner at the firm.
• Aditi Singh as Tina / Latika Kalra
• Shyam Kishore as Bharat Mishra: Rajiv's lawyer.

Episodic

• Arjun Kachroo as Rajat Kakkar
• Suchitra Pillai as Shivani Bahl
• Vijay Vikram Singh as Takesh
• Flora Saini as Anisha Menon
• Swayam Joshi
• Haelyn Shastri^[4]
• Sheena Chohan^[5] as Jasmin Lobo
• Nirbhay Jain
• Nancy Gill as Kavya Bola
• Aparna Menon as Rose Mathews

Production

Development

Season 1

A collaboration between Disney+ Hotstar and Kajol was announced in July 2022 with a teaser video revealing an untitled series.^[6] In August, the first schedule of the shooting commenced at Juhu Studios in Mumbai where a set was built depicting an office setting. On 8 September 2022, the first look was released, announcing the title as well as the show being an adaptation of the American series of the same name.^[7] The motion poster was released on 9 June 2023 and the trailer on 12 June announcing the release date 14 July 2023.

Season 2

The second season of the series began filming on Oct 2024, with Kajol returning as Noyonika Sengupta.^[8]

Release

All episodes of The Trial released on Disney+ Hotstar on 14 July 2023.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reception

The show has received mostly mixed reviews from critics.^[9]

Anuj Kumar of The Hindu opined "The makers have looked beyond the obvious faces that dot the OTT space these days and have brought back some lesser-seen powerhouses."^[10]

Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express opined "For the second season, can we expect smoother writing, less choppy situations, and please, none of those sonorous voice-overs which feel like they were written as bumper-sticker lines to the wise?"^[11]

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated the series 3 stars out of 5 and gave mixed review "Not everything in this world is by the book. One of the key characters in The Trial avers that a lawyer's job is to defend a client, not the truth."^[12]

Critic Deepa Gahlot reviewed the series for Scroll.in stating "Kajol is given annoying internal pop-philosophical monologues about love, trust, destiny and faith."^[13]

Santanu Das of Hindustan Times felt dialogues are poor and wrote "None of the performances land, even the always-reliable Sheeba Chaddha meets the fate of a poorly written boss-lady archetype."^[14]

Tushar Joshi of India Today wrote "On the flip side, the score and music sounds outdated and some of the dialogues stand out as a sore thumb in an otherwise modern setting. There is a lack of cohesiveness between the episodes and you need to be patient to make it to the point where the actual fun starts."^[15]

A critic from Rediff.com wrote "Blame it on my expectations, but we've seen far more absorbing and closer-to-life court room dramas in recent times -- the slow burn Criminal Justice, spirited Guilty Minds and, of course, the glitzy Suits being one of my all-time favourites."^[16]

Pinkvilla gave a mixed review "The Trial counts for a nice weekend binge despite few clichéd tropes and plot conveniences."^[17]

References

1. "Kajol to make her web series debut with a Suparn Varma - Disney+Hotstar series : Bollywood News". Bollywood Hungama. 1 July 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
2. "The Good Wife is Now 'The Trial': Catch The Trailer Of Kajol's Upcoming Debut Web Series on June 12". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
3. "Kajol To Kickstart Shooting For Her Debut Web Series In August? Deets Inside". english.jagran.com. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
4. Rajesh, Srividya (6 September 2022). "Exclusive: Vijay Vikram Singh bags Hotstar series The Good Wife". IWMBuzz. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
5. "The Actor Who Believes in Sprinkling Magic!". MoneyControl. 24 October 2022. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
6. Whittock, Jesse (18 July 2022). "Disney+ Hotstar To Produce Series With Indian Star Kajol". Deadline. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
7. "The Good Wife FIRST LOOK: Kajol asks 'shuru kare?' as she enters courtroom in Indian adaptation of the series". PINKVILLA. 8 September 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
8. "EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS! Kajol Begins Shooting For The Trial Season 2 With Asrani. See BTS Pics". Times Now. 6 October 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
9. "The Trial Twitter Review: Kajol's acting praised, but some call it 'cheap remake' of The Good Wife". News9live. 14 July 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
10. Kumar, Anuj (14 July 2023). "'The Trial' series review: Kajol passes with flying colours". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
11. Gupta, Shubhra (14 July 2023). "The Trial review: Kajol's web series debut never hits the high points". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
12. Chatterjee, Saibal (14 July 2023). "The Trial Review: Kajol Is At Once Seething And Smarting". NDTV. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
13. Gahlot, Deepa (14 July 2023). "'The Trial' review: Kajol is the chief draw of overwrought legal show". Scroll.in. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
14. Das, Santanu (14 July 2023). "The Trial review: Kajol's OTT debut serves no pyaar, some kaanoon, and a lot of dhokha". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
15. Joshi, Tushar (14 July 2023). "The Trial Review: Kajol is good but Sheeba Chadha wins the battle of performances". India Today. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
16. Nair, Divya (14 July 2023). "The Trial Review: Kajol Is Brilliant!". Rediff.com. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
17. Jogani, Rishil (14 July 2023). "The Trial Review: Kajol led courtroom drama engages and impresses despite plot conveniences and clichés". Pinkvilla. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

External links

• The Trial at IMDb
• Trial on Disney+ Hotstar