Amar Vishwas Review – Few Highs in an Average Courtroom Drama

BOTTOM LINE
Few Highs in an Average Courtroom Drama

PLATFORM
Amazon MX Player

RUNTIME
300 Mins (10 episodes)

What Is the Show About?
When influential Mumbai film producer Jessu Momin is found murdered, suspicion immediately falls on Bahar Chakravarty, an aspirant actress deemed guilty by public opinion. Sharp-witted lawyer Amar Vishwas takes her defence, sensing the open-and-shut case hides a darker conspiracy. He fights the system to dismantle the prosecution’s narrative and uncovers the truth behind the murder.

Performances
Rajeev Khandelwal’s titular character is the only well-established (yet one-dimensional) part in the show. Given his potential, he cakewalks through it with ease, but the absence of any complexity in the characterisation dents its impact to an extent. Ravi Behl adds an interesting layer to a bland role and makes a reasonable impression.

This is certainly not among Aamir Ali’s better parts; his role lacks substance. Despite landing a pivotal character, Urvashi Pardeshi doesn’t have much say in the proceedings. Ali Hassan’s performance as Jessu is strictly okay. Pankhuri Gidwani looks good for the part, but that’s all you can say about it. Rushad Rana’s exaggerated portrayal of a victimised father is disappointing.

Analysis
Amar Vishwas, the courtroom drama streaming on Amazon MX Player, has modest ambitions, aiming to be a simplified version of Criminal Justice while remaining watchable. It partly succeeds in its quest. The show has a workable premise: an aspirant actress framed in a film producer’s murder and a reliable advocate standing up to prove her innocence, backing his instincts.

An adaptation of Suhas Shirvalkar’s novel, the show wastes little time in setting up the premise. It opens with a producer lying dead in a hotel and Bahar fleeing the crime scene, only to find herself in Amar Vishwas’s car. He asks Bahar to surrender and prove her innocence, but slowly realises the case isn’t as vanilla as it seems. As he fights for her, he must outwit many attempts to suppress the truth.

Many layers of the case eventually come to the fore. Newer names crop up, including Bahar’s boyfriend Sudarshan, an actress Achal, Jessu’s former production partner Akbar and a medico Mudassar. Backed by a strong team, Amar gathers all available evidence on the crime suspects, outsmarting his lawyer counterpart at every step. How far does Amar go to nail the culprit?

While the proceedings remain reasonably engaging, the show has one major problem: the absence of a vulnerable protagonist. He is an orphan, has nothing to lose, fears none and looks ready to clear any hurdle that comes his way. In the process of creating a trustworthy character, the makers do not do much to test his mettle. He has a solution to every problem, and his pursuit lacks urgency.

Everything always works in favour of the protagonist. The cop supplies him with clues at every step. His team remains ever-supportive. The opposition in the court is weak, regularly provoking him but failing to come up with convincing arguments. Moreover, the entire subplot around Mudassar and his wife in the court is particularly flimsy and melodramatic. They peter out just too easily.

Yet, the show’s plot points remain its saviour. The screenplay is consistently eventful, straddling the backstories of every suspect. After a point, it doesn’t try to be a whodunit; you are only curious about why the crime was committed in the first place and the modus operandi. The strategies Amar adopts to overwhelm the suspects and confuse them in finding his answers are unconventional and intriguing.

In the quest to find the criminal, one thing remains clear: the dead guy was a womaniser, and the attacker’s ambition was to protect a woman. Given that there are multiple victims of Jessu, Amar Vishwas gets the guessing game reasonably right. However, the bland storytelling style is a major irritant; it is monotonous, operating in auto-pilot mod,e and the acting looks conveniently rehearsed.

Director Shashant Shah tries to score brownie points towards the end with long monologues about women having to tolerate predators across every profession and how it must end. Of course, there are no easy, tailor-made solutions for it. While the culprit’s motive ultimately feels simplistic, the presence of multiple characters at the crime scene provides the necessary fillip to the investigation.

Amar Vishwas is a tolerable yet average courtroom drama. The plotting and the setup are quite decent, but the characters and the execution lack the nuance to make it a compelling show on the whole. It is like any other staple MX Player release; neither too great nor underwhelming.

Music and Other Departments?
On the technical front, Amar Vishwas is mounted on a decent scale, but none of the contributions truly elevate the product. Sameer Phaterpekar’s music score has a playful texture and changes its hues as per the varying moods of the story. The cinematography, by Prasad Bhende, is a silver lining in comparison to other departments, overcoming the limitations of the backdrop. While the episode runtime is crisp, the 5-hour duration for a rather straightforward premise leaves you restless across many instances.

Highlights?

Reasonably engaging, watchable

Decent plot points

Drawbacks?

Not-so-strong performances

Bland characterisation

Too many cinematic liberties

Did I Enjoy It?

In parts

Will You Recommend It?

If you like courtroom dramas and want to kill time

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