Not that the predecessor, The Trial—Pyaar Kaanoon Dhokha was great. At most, it was an average and rambling fare, but as it left some areas unfulfilled, one expected the follow-up season to be at least better-scripted. Alas! What could have been!

The story follows ace counsel Noyonika Sengupta (Kajol) as she battles cases (less!) as well as her relationships (more!!). Her daughters Anaira (Suhani Juneja) and Ananya (Myra Singh) want her to forgive her once-philandering husband, Rajiv (Jisshu Sengupta) who has been exonerated by the court and is pleading endlessly with his implacable wife for forgiveness for his past ‘activities’. 

Noyonika has a soft corner for Vishal (Aly Khan), her mentor-colleague and also partner in the law firm she works in, wherein the other partner is Malini (Sheeba Chaddha in a horrendous wig) and colleagues include Sana (Kubbra Sait), Ketan Patel (Kenneth Desai), Dheeraj Pandey (Gaurav Pandey) and new addition Param (Karanvir Sharma).

The long 6-episode series becomes a cluttered melodrama, with multiple threads coming in and cases being fought amidst all the mélange. There is a high-risk case including a big-name developer, which also involves a slimy lawyer, Navroz Electricwala (Asrani as an interesting rogue) and other lesser cases. We have loyal clients, internal (within the law firm) politics and manipulations, Rajiv’s political ambitions and his ruthless opponent, Narayani Dhole (Sonali Kulkarni), his trusted lieutenant Ilyas (Aseem Hattangadi), Vishal’s newly- acquired girlfriend, Chitrangada (Pamela Singh Bhutoria), a skeleton in Noyonika’s loyal friend Sana’s closet and much more. We also have Noyonika’s gay bro, Shumon (Santanu Ghatak), who comes and vamooses fleetingly without any relevance, whatsoever!

In this shoddy scripting process, the court proceedings, off and on, seem like cursory justifications for the title, and the suffix (Pyaar Kaanoon Dhokha) seems like a whimsical indicator of a hopelessly-convoluted mix.

The script has many flaws and senseless portions. A man who is marrying his girlfriend wants a supply of drugs and takes her along to meet the supplier, Noyonika’s obduracy at forgiving Rajiv, the way she is confused between Rajiv and Vishal and also the way Vishal and Chitrangada have a one-way relationship all jar. Even the children fail to have a straight and logical graph in their characters.

As for the climax, it is a trial for audiences to watch something so inconclusive and irrelevant to the title!

Shockingly, as with Season 1, there is a great cast who deliver consummate performances. But just as the nursery rhyme that goes, “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again!” they simply cannot make the messy series acquire any coherence or appeal. The emotions are often plastic, sometimes genuine and a few legal loopholes are graphically shown. 

But that’s it. In my rating, one star goes only for all the actors!

Rating: **1/2

Jio Hotstar presents Banijay Asia’s The Trial—Pyar Kanoon Dhokha Season 2 Produced by: Deepak Dhar & others  Directed by: Umesh Bist Written by: Robert King, Michelle King, Abbas Dalal, Hussain Dalal & Siddharth Kumar Starring: Kajol, Jisshu Sengupta, Aly Khan, Sheeba Chaddha, Kubbra Sait, Kenneth Desai, Asrani, Beena Banerjee, Gaurav Pandey, Santanu Ghatak, Sukhita Aiyar, Myra Singh, Suhani Juneja, Adithi Kalkunte, Harish Kulkarni, Ramakany Dayma, Kunal Thakur, Karanvir Sharma & others

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