Illegal season 2 review: This Neha Sharma-Piyush Mishra starring courtroom drama series is way too dramatic

2.5/5

Story:

Successful lawyer Janardhan Jaitley (Piyush Mishra) is now campaigning for the seat of the CM. His former employee Niharika Singh (Neha Sharma) wants to destroy him from the roots but will a smart player like JJ fall into her trap?

Review:

The show tried to be more commercial this time. We are introduced to Neha Sharma's Niharika Singh in a glamorous avatar. She is seen running and then trying on glam clothes. Of course, the next thing was hearing Piyush Mishra's Janardhan Jaitley. We are introduced to their characters through the dialogues. Meanwhile, we also meet 'CM saahiba' Achint Kaur, who leaves a fair impression.

Illegal had explored relations brilliantly. One of them was between Akshay (Akshay Oberoi) and Niharika, who are in a complicated relationship. The relation takes off where it left in the first season. The spark between them is fairly alive.

The screenplay and execution of the show are still very poor. It is dramatic as always. Thankfully though, this time, the camera angles do not become a distraction.

Tanuj Virwani's entry as Raghav is quite surprising and refreshing at the same time. His character gels well in the series and is quite different from others, in a good way.

Sonalii Sehgaal, too, comes as a surprise but doesn't impress with her role. She is especially overdramatic, especially in a few scenes. Parul Gulati is still a charm. She grows fourfold in the season.

Piyush shows his dominance through small moments like having control over his son, Akshay. As always, he excels with his on-point dialogues.

The much-hyped Niharika-JJ fight happens to be absolutely nothing concrete. It just appears to be a drama rather than a courtroom scene. While JJ shines throughout, Niharika also has some scenes that bring out her character.

The focus this time is on Niharika vs JJ and thus, showing the victims of cases is very limited, unlike the first season. Fortunately, the second season does not get as dramatic as the first when it comes to the camera angles. However, we met Kubbra Sait as Mehar Salam in the first season and her story was elaborated at length. The same is missing in this season, which does not work in its favour. Too many character introductions do not work well for Illegal either.

The season roams around the old cases rather than new ones. A whole episode - Old Cases Die Hard - is, in fact, proof of the same. It introduces a mysterious hoodie guy. While at one point, you feel the mystery around him is solved, the reality is far away from the truth.

Everything in Illegal, especially season 2, happens suddenly. There is absolutely no explanation for the same. Right from the start, you get to know about things without getting any background to it. Even if there is a mystery in the season, it is solved almost immediately. Thus, Illegal season 2 is left with mere drama which goes on in loops. The only good thing about the show is its cliffhanger ending.

It appears that the makers wanted to explore the angles of Niharika vs JJ and Niharika and Akshay's complicated love story but were confused about which angle to focus on and thus, do not do complete justice to either. Nonetheless, they have sidelined the basic concept of courtroom drama. This time, it becomes a 'circus' after the first few episodes.

Verdict:

Illegal season 2 goes on in one tone - drama. There is literally nothing more to the series. Even though the makers dabbled with romance and some mystery, the moments are too short-lived. The series is too dramatic for a courtroom drama. Old characters keep coming back and the cases are also mysteriously solved within a short period. Thus, we recommend watching the second season only if you have already invested your time in the first. However, do not keep high expectations from this season.