Sayak’s Dharmabatar comes at a time when the third pillar of democracy, the judiciary, is receiving attention from all and sundry because judges are often seen to be allegedly assuming executive roles that influence the legislature and public opinion. Although Sayak does not really acknowledge the inspiration, Dharmabatar is largely based on The Judge, an American legal drama featuring Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall. The original maintains a fine balance between a courtroom drama and a domestic drama where a much-respected retired judge finds himself in trouble after he, apparently inadvertently, kills a pedestrian with a criminal past. His elder son — who shares little of his father’s high moral grounds — takes up the brief on behalf of his father and eventually gets him acquitted of all charges.

The seasoned playwright, Ujjwal Chattopadhyay, whose mastery over adaptations is getting finer with time, wrote the script of Dharmabatar with an eye on Sayak’s pool of actors. It was left to the veteran, Meghnad Bhattacharya, who essays the lead role of the father and directs Dharmabatar, to edit it further to suit the group’s requirements.

We thus have a 140-minute-long family drama that reinstates Bhattacharya’s signature style. In the initial stage, the mother’s role — played attentively by Runa Bandyopadhyay — serves a functional purpose. The sportsman-turned-small time businessman elder son (Dhurjati De) and the mentally challenged youngest son (Goutam Sen) balance each other perfectly till the middle son (Prosenjit Kundu) enters the scene, much to the chagrin of the father. As the father and son equation is played out at various levels, the middle son’s estranged wife (Rupsa Bhattacharya) chips in with legal inputs and the domestic help (Indrajita Chakraborty) keeps the audience informed about the nitty-gritty of the household. Meghnad Bhattacharya, who shapes the lead role with a keen eye towards geriatric issues, reserves his best for the
final courtroom showdown.

Overall, a conventional drama played out on emotional terms, Dharmabatar also recalls some of Sayak’s recent productions dealing with generational conflicts.