Court kacheri’s chaotic chakkar!

Martin Scorsesersquos Goodfellas 1990 begins with the iconic line by Ray Liotta as Henry Hill ldquoAs far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangsterrdquoThe series Court Kacheri I figured speaking to the showrsquos creator and founder of TVF Arunabh Kumar begins with a tribute to GoodfellasThe protagonist declares ldquoAs far back as I can remember mein toh saala kabhi lawyer banna hi nahin chahta tha I never wished to be a lawyerrdquoCourt Kacheri is a legal drama But thatrsquos a genreThe way it works with the OTT scene in general mdash and perhaps a reason so much of the content sucks mdash is if say a popular Hindi heartland thriller historical fiction or a courtroom drama exists on a platform the others order one for their ownThe courtroom is merely a setting isnrsquot itThe emotional core will still come from the story and the characters At the centre of Court Kacheri is the father Pawan Malhotra son Ashish Verma and proteacutegeacute Puneet Batra who work in a district courtlsquoWelcome to Sarjanpurrsquo yes but I donrsquot know where it is An inmate of sorts to this generic geography of smalltown North India is the son who feels gagged by his fatherrsquos natural ambition That the dadrsquos set up a law practice the son must inherit itPuneet Batra writer and actor Ruchir Arun directorItrsquos an interesting take on nepotism that comes with its own form of oppression Wherein everything served on a platter inescapably inhibits lifersquos choicesKids in richest families more so suffer from this imprisonment Another reason Irsquove never envied themThe showrsquos writer Puneet Batra Kota Factory 3 says this tallies with conversations he had with districtcourt lawyers during his twoyear research surveying courts in Surajpur Ghaziabad Karkardooma Tees HazarihellipPuneet incidentally also passionately plays young Param the proteacutegeacute to the senior lawyer on the show Hersquos the outsider treated no less than a sonDirector Ruchir Arun Little Things tells me this adds a nuance to nepotism as a phenomenon ldquoThe actual son never resents Param Who in turn treats the boy as his younger brother There is an originality to this gaze Itrsquos my favourite part of the showrdquoThe starting point of which I learnt is a line in it or the ldquokahaavatrdquoproverb that you must stay away from ldquosafed coatrdquo doctors and ldquokaale coatrdquo lawyersThe fact is Arunabh argues ldquoWhile the society views lawyers with disdain therersquos a realisation that when yoursquore in trouble theyrsquore the ones who will see you through Therersquos another line about a village that has no lsquovakeelrsquo lawyer mdash those who fight for others are called vakeelrdquoMy favourite part of Court Kacheri mdash as with most shows wersquove loved on OTTs mdash is the casting curios This is besides the brilliant leads of course mdash that foulmouthed daadi in the village the corrupt babu in the rural hospital the conscientious nononsense headconstable in the local thanahellipThese are inevitably unfamiliar faces and names yoursquoll never know that through OTT series in particular have wholly upended the Hindi film archetype of the lsquocharacter actorrsquo mdash adding freshness and authenticity to the world the series is intimately set inIn some ways the pioneers of this movement might well be TVF itself originally a collective on YouTube over a decade ago introducing untested talents to the mainstream since Bollywood had for the longest developed space for fewIts founder Arunabh tells me ldquoThatrsquos how we began our journey Back then we worked with small budgets mdash we still do mdash and thanks to casting directors with whoever was available I read an article recently about 250 actors from TVF that nobody had seen before Many of them still donrsquot live in BombayrdquoAs for Court Kacheri Ruchir adds ldquoThat daadi I think is from Lucknow Most of the subsidiary cast are from Allahabad and thereaboutsrdquo Which is where the series is shotThe other aspect you can equally credit TVF for is shining a light on villages where over 60 per cent of India lives but urban Indians barely get a genuine glimpse of in their popular entertainmentPanchayat Prime Video remains TVFrsquos flagship enterprise Medical drama Gram Chikitsalay 2025 Prime Video was a welcome additionTherersquos much of rural India while seeking humourdelight in the mundane mdash rather than poverty porn or public service advertising mdash in Court Kacheri The central case in it deals with a simple matter of property and divorceThe other legal drama as authentically diving into mofussil India I can think of is Guilty Minds Prime Video writtendirected by Shefali Bhushan daughter of top jurist Shanti BhushanThat stars Kulbhushan Kharbanda 80 easily Indiarsquos most underrated actor stillYou couldrsquove said the same for Pawan Malhotra 67 But not anymore once you watch Court Kacheri Grahan JioHotstar TabbarhellipSpeaking of the latter I recall posting on LinkedIn about how ldquoitrsquos not acknowledged enough some of the most unique intellectually sorted and hence quite possibly the alltime iconic Indian shows mdash Tabbar Scam 1992 Rocket Boys Maharani first season Gullak Freedom at Midnight The Hunt mdash have all been on Sony LIVrdquoTo which the crowdsourced recommendation was how could you miss mentioning Court Kacheri supercrisp five episodesrsquo flat so finely written directed performedhellipTruly How could I You mustnrsquot eitherMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass cultureHe tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper