It has been a rather dull weekend in terms of new releases. Other than Taish which kind of stood out, the other two releases have been disappointing. While I literally had to force myself into reviewing Kaali Khuhi, I couldn’t find myself reviewing the other Kannada release Bheemasena Nalamaharaja. And so as a fall back plan, I decided to review Your Honor, one of the only webseries that I had missed watching since the emergence of SonyLiv as an OTT platform. So, here we go!

Based on an Israeli series by the same name, Your Honor is the story of an honest judge going to any level to save his son from a crime which he had committed unintentionally. The story is a good one. The screenplay is a bit of a slowburner to begin with which made me realize that this is a crime drama as opposed to a crime thriller. And a slow one. Things unfold at a leisurely pace till the halfway mark. But there is a twist at the end of every episode that keeps you interested. And post the halfway mark, there is a visible urgency in the story culminating into a shocking finale! Now the drawback here was that this is a 12 episode series of 36 mins each which is a bit long for OTT standards, this could have easily wrapped up under 10 episodes making it even more tighter and taut in its storytelling. On the brighter side, the issues raised in the series are quite relevant and nicely depicted. The dialogues are decent and so is the BGM. Director E Niwas has done an excellent job in the direction department, keeping the interest alive almost throughout. And that mystery at the end deserves brownie points!

The performances are excellent barring one character. I hate to single out someone but Pulkit Manol as Abeer was just out of place here. I don’t mean to be harsh since this is his first outing but his expressions and dialogue delivery(barring the climax sequence) were flat and even borderline annoying. Suhasini Mulay as Sheel was on point. Anuj Singh Duhan in a cameo shines as Satnam. Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as Punchhi is first rate. Richa Pallod as Indu is wonderfully restrained and she deserves more such roles going forward too. Yashpal Sharma is an outstanding actor and his acting chops are on full display here essaying the role of Pandit. Parul Gulati as Ruma is the find of the series for me. She is pleasant on the eye and absolutely brilliant. A special mention of Taniya Kalra as Amrita who makes a confident appearance. Kunj Anand as Harman is pretty good. Parag Gupta shines as Guddan. Mita Vasisht as Kiran is outstanding and it is heartening to watch her in such meaty roles. Varun Badola as Kashi is brilliant and he nails down each of his scenes with perfection. And there is Jimmy Sheirgill as Bishan. What a performance! Over the years, I have seen him in underwritten roles which he did master but here he is the kingpin of the series and he absolutely commands your attention while nailing down his character with ease.

Your Honor is a slow burner but give it time to simmer and watch it turn into a delicious crime drama. Available on Sony Liv.