‘Mamla Legal Hai’ season 2: Quirky cases bring new chaos at Patparganj court

Actors Anant Joshi and Nidhi Bisht, who are reprising their fan favourite characters in the second season of "Mamla Legal Hai", say they had a lot of fun exploring the evolving character dynamics in the new season that features a new set of funny legal cases.

Both Joshi and Bisht broke out with their characters of court manger Vishwas Pandey and lawyer Sujata Negi, respectively, in the Netflix legal comedy.





The show's new season, releasing on Friday, explores quirky cases and even quirkier set of characters at the Patparganj District Court, led by Ravi Kishan's VD Tyagi

Bisht, who studied law before becoming an actor, said she is grateful for all the love her character Negi, who aspired to have her own AC chamber, received in the first season.

"Last time, Sujata's desire was to get an AC chamber and she got it. Now, Munshi ji (one of the characters on the show) told her in the last season that you need a partner in both real life and work life. So, this is what is going on right now. The search for a partner is going on and this is the arc," the actor told PTI.

Joshi, whose character considers himself the Donna Paulsen (from American drama 'Suits) of Patparganj court, said the show's writers keep surprising the cast by coming up with quirky cases.

"In season one, my character said ground reality is stranger than fiction. These cases are so interesting, who wouldn't want to make a film or show on them? When we read these scenes, we are surprised by the writing and find new layers and possibilities to perform. To have such a strong script backing you is the best playground for any actor," he said.

One of the newcomers for season two is social media personality and actor Kusha Kapila. She plays the role of Naina Arora, a college rival of Naila Grrewal's lawyer Ananya Shroff.

Kapila, who manifested being part of the show, said her character bring more chaos to the comedy.

"I feel 'Mamla...' is one of the shows where if you introduce more characters, more people, it gets more interesting and the stakes become even higher, which is the reason every time a new case comes around, you are excited to see what is going to happen next.

"I bring in more confusion to also really up the chaos. And to also add a layer to Naila's character. I think Naila's arc as a lawyer gets even more strengthened. She wants to decimate her opponent. So, that face-off is very interesting."

Joshi said when the writers came up with the sequence where his character calls himself 'Donna', he was clueless as he hadn't seen 'Suits'. Donna Paulson, played by Sarah Rafferty, is the all-knowing secretory to star lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) in the American legal drama 'Suits'.

"Fun fact, I had not seen 'Suits' before this. So, when I got this script and I was reading the scene, it said Donna. And the writers were explaining it with a lot of passion expecting me to laugh a lot but I had no idea what they were talking about. But this line has echoed so much in people. I later saw Donna's clippings on YouTube."

Kapila said they would always crack up on the sets and sometimes during their scenes

"Most of my scenes are with Anant and Naila and we had so many moments where we couldn't stop laughing. Anant is largely the culprit here because once he starts laughing, he cannot stop. So, even if he really tries, he just goes into this fit of laughter. And then there's a wave and everyone is swept by that wave... We always found a way to laugh and have the best time. So, I would say I had the best time on the show," Kapila said.

"I don't have a very big role. But for whatever role I had, whatever time I had on set, I think it was amazing. I really, truly understood how to be in an ensemble scene and do your best and give your best," she added.

Bisht, whose character has a romantic angle with her co-star Anjum Batra's Lakhmir Mintu, said her character gets to discover a lot about herself in the new season.

"In the show, the character bump into each other and we fall down in the classic style of Hindi movies. But these romantic sequences turned to to be like action scenes for me because I had injuries."

Asked whether they had picked up new legal terms while working on the show, Joshi joked, "Legally, with my contracts, the only term that I focus on is remuneration."

"Remuneration seems better than compensation. I don't know why," said Bisht.

"Actually, I find milord very funny. Actually, milord comes from my lord. It's a British lingo from where we borrowed our law and everything. And I have seen some Broadway-type theatrical performances in actual courts," she said.