Your Honor
Cast: Jimmy Sheirgill, Varun Badola, Mita Vashisht, Parul Gulati
Director: Eeshwar Nivas
Crime thrillers are keeping us entertained in this season of uncertainty as we lap up the dark, and often deranged, on OTT platforms.Before we are done applauding the engrossing and layered Paatal Lok, we have been served Your Honor on Sony Liv. Unlike Anushka Sharma’s Amazon Prime original, Your Honour is a faithful remake of an award-winning Israeli show, Kvodo.
The story of a judge who puts family before principles as his son is embroiled in a hit-and-run case, Your Honor has already been recreated for American television. The Sony Liv show places the drama in Ludhiana without really tinkering with the original.
Watch: Your Honor trailer here
Jimmy Sheirgill plays an ambitious district judge and a single parent to a teenager. A man of principles, Bishan is first a devoted father. As his 18-year-old son leaves a grievously injured man on the road after a crash, he is ready to bend the law and commit crimes to save the teenager. The judge flicks his duty into the bin and uses his in-depth knowledge of the law to serve his own purpose, calling in question the image of judges as custodians of the law and the final word.
Varun Badola plays a CRPF officer in Your Honor.
Jimmy’s image as the dimpled boy from Mohabbatein may still remain etched in our mind but 20 years down the line, the actor doesn’t shy away from playing his age. Regardless of the show he is in, Jimmy has the ability to be the fan favourite on screen. The actor who was outstanding in his debut show Rangbaaz Phirse makes Your Honor his own too. As he puts on the robes of the judge and plays the father of a teenager, we are still rooting for him despite the shades of grey. And joining him in the game is another name from his generation, Varun Badola.
The one, however, who simply outshines them all is Mita Vashisht as she brings out a rustic feel to her standout performance of a police officer. Among the many onscreen policewomen we have seen of late, keeping aside Delhi Crime’s Shefali Shah, Mita is the only one to have left a lasting impression on me. Parul Gulati too adds a punch with her Bhojpuri accent in the Punjab heartland as she climbs the popularity charts, one web series at a time.
Mita Vashisht in a still from Your Honor.
Keeping the notable performances and the impressive dialogue delivery aside, I do have one grievance about the director hardly utilising his talent in adaptation of the Israeli show. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the makers seem to have strictly chosen to adhere to the original. After Rasika Dugal and Purab Kohli’s web show Out of Love, which was unfortunately a frame-by-frame recreation of international series Doctor Foster, Your Honor repeats the same mistake. From the flick of a finger to the dripping of blood, even the placement of shots faithfully copies the original. If copying with perfection can be considered an art, the team manages to do spectacularly well.
Also read: What Irrfan Khan’s son Babil said about his resemblance with dad
Sony Liv may be an occasional player in the blooming world streaming of platforms but such choices hint it may soon catch up with the market. With Father’s Day approaching this weekend, this one makes for an interesting watch.
(The review is based on four episodes provided by the digital platform)
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