Good Wife Tamil Series Character Guide

The newly launched series Good Wife on Hotstar is a Tamil adaptation of the US legal-political drama series The Good Wife, which is exceptional in its subversion of archetypes with its characters. The Indian adaptation seems very smart and modern in its portrayal of the characters, since not only does it unmake the archetypes of a good wife, mother, and woman, but it does so in the Indian context. While prying eyes are always glued to women as they are surveilled inside and outside of their homes, both in their professional and personal lives, characters like Tarunika may finally liberate women from their historically flat portrayal by the Indian media. Not only in the resilience of its titular character, but also the ones that are in close kinship with Tarunika, her husband Gunnaselan, her mother-in-law, and the people at her work—they bring a fresh whiff of realness to the world of Indian dramas where most characters are sorted into neat categories as either larger-than-life heroes or mere villains. This is a series that makes room for the grays in the characters, and in doing so, it embeds them into a reality that feels human, living, and very close to the one that we live in. In this article, we will be taking a deeper look into how these characters unravel, face conflicts, and evolve through the first season of Good Wife.

Spoilers Ahead

Rather than the making of the “good wife,” in Tarunika, we see the unmaking of the stereotypical “good wife.” At the beginning of the series, she is Taru to some, Taruni to others—merely a fragment of her full potential. She existed as a shadow self to her husband, away from her successful career, rearing and nurturing their kids—perhaps happily, but it stopped Tarunika from assuming her full identity. With Gunna gone after the scandal, Tarunika reassumes her identity of multitudes—she is not only a wife, or a mother, or a daughter-in-law; in her purest essence, she is a woman and a practicing lawyer. Joining the law firm becomes a big part of the reclamation of her identity. With every case she solves, the pain of being betrayed by Gunna is displaced from the center of her perspective. She assumes a sense of self and starts to do the right thing. Tarunika starts seeing marriage for the institution that it is, and the sustainability of it is important to her—a sudden rupture could have taken away the companionship, support, and stability she had shared with her partner.

Tarunika’s character holds room for contraditcions—she supports her husband in the trial, but at home she makes him sleep on the couch. She resists his touches. This is a sign of an emotionally evolved woman dealing with a grave situation with time and patience. Her actions are rarely reactive; she takes her time to observe and process the incident and then makes her decision. Tarunika’s character, very conveniently for the plot, could have relied on Hari Deepak for temporary emotional solace, but it does not let their relationship progress past the platonic phase. Despite having romantic undercurrents, Tarunika does not engage in revenge adultery. Some may say that Tarunika’s character harbors a deep sense of duty; however, her character goes slightly deeper than that. Tarunika is greeted by their familiar drink by her husband after she fails a case and comes home after an emotionally charged moment with Hari. The relief on her face reflects the deep friendship that she shares with Gunna, which surpasses any breach in their conjugal treaties. Tarunika and Gunna had seen each other grow, and perhaps they want to keep doing so in the future, not out of duty but out of a deep sense of companionship and security. 

Gunnaselan is the Associate Advocate General—a man with a reserved, respectable personality, which is shattered by the revelation of the scandal. Yet he is gentle, temperate, and honest. When Tarunika confronts him, he says he was indeed in the video, but tries pulling a sentimental defense. It is not a half-truth; it is a truth borne out of sentiment. Gunna is not the typical archetypal husband who is threatened by his wife’s success, but he is also not a model husband who is able to put his trust in his wife unquestioningly. Gunna has his moments of doubt and insecurity—he questions Tarunika on her staying out late, and he questions her on a video clip from a hotel’s reception desk featuring her and Hari, but he is not rigid. When faced with confrontations, or reality checks, he reverts back to his non-aggravated personality of a man with integrity.What he shares with his wife in temperament is how they stand up for each other in front of the public eye. Despite suspecting a romantic undercurrent between his wife and Hari, Gunna does not think twice to help Hari out in his case by using his sources. He is an honorable man, and when Hari apologizes for keeping Tarunika late at work, he admits with integrity that he understands the life of a lawyer. He is supportive even from prison when he hears that Tarunika has joined the law firm and often encourages her to think like a lawyer. Additionally, Gunna is a doting, protective father. Perhaps Gunna’s dynamism is reason enough for Tarunika to decide to stay with him.

Hari Deepak is Tarunika’s senior at the firm, but they went to college together. The two had a romantic relationship back in the day, which fizzled out after college. However, there is no bad blood between Hari and Tarunika. In fact, Hari is kind enough to go out of his way, negotiate with Lavanya, and offer Tarunika a role as a junior associate at the firm. Hari is supportive towards Tarunika and pays attention to her emotional state—out of friendship, out of collegial courtesy, but also out of the leftover romantic feelings between them. Up to a point, it seems like Hari is trying to get over the dynamic—he consciously denies Lavanya’s attempt to put the two of them on a business trip together, but he ultimately reveals his heart to Tarunika in the end. In between, Hari is strictly professional—he does not let his feelings come in the way when he is defending Gunna in court, even though putting him behind bars may have won him some more proximity to his lover.Hari’s character is not of a jilted lover with a vengeance arc—he is probably looking out for Tarunika—the Tarunika he knew in college. Not the one tied to wifely and motherly responsibilities, but the one beneath all that. However, this may be his disregard for Tarunika’s evolution—in his misrecognition of the person that she grew into, Hari tries to claim her. He tells her that she is the reason he did not get married and tells her to be with him. When she does not reciprocate, a mild lover’s revenge is borne out of his otherwise level-headed personality—he sends a video that could bring another rupture. Is it a selfish move? Yes and no—it is selfish in the way that he utilizes it, but it is also selfless in the way that he feels that his friend needs to be aware of the truth. Hari is not a protector or savior—neither does he want to play one for Tarunika—he sees himself as a potential companion to a woman with strong wits and stronger resilience. 

Lavanya is Tarunika’s superior at the law firm—and she plays a pivotal role in bringing out the sharp, willing-to-prove-herself version of Tarunika after she resumes her career as a legal associate. Lavanya is an intelligent lawyer—she probes Tarunika enough for her to venture out of her comfort zone by pointing out that she had given up on her career once before. Lavanya fits into the archetype of bosses who seem very bitter on the surface but have a heart of gold beneath the positional aura. The series shows a beautiful friendship between Hari and Lavanya, which is warm and collegial, without trespassing into the zone of romantic overtones. In fact, the college kid in Lavanya often comes out when she is being light-hearted with Hari by secretly trying to pair him and Tarunika up on a business trip. In the beginning, Lavanya feels slightly threatened by how Tarunika outshines her in court, but she is a dynamic leader—she does not think twice about handing Tarunika Vel Pandhiyan’s case because he was the one who made the scandal open about her husband. This was a strategic move from Lavanya to garner social media support for the firm, and it also lets Tarunika benefit by the image. In the end, Lavanya had to take the harsh decision of keeping either Umar or Tarunika for the role, and she chose Umar because he needs the job more than Tarunika does, and he is more active in stepping up. However, we have reasons to believe Lavanya was pulling some strings from behind till the very end, as she ultimately retains Tarunika as she was about to take her leave. Lavanya seems like the ideal corporate boss that all of us may hope to come by in our lives.

Sneha Merleen seems like a minor character throughout the season. She is the legal investigator at Tarunika’s firm and is often paired with Tarunika and Umar for the cases. She instantly recognizes Tarunika as Gunna’s wife the first time they meet, telling her that she used to work for Gunna’s firm until she was fired. Over the course of the cases that they are assigned, the two grow close, share success and drinks at the bar, and develop a friendship. However, Sneha Merleen turns out to be more important than we initially thought when we find out about her life before she joined this firm. Thillai and his associates find Sneha important enough to threaten into testifying in favor of them—implying that she had important knowledge about Gunna’s business. She and Gunna also have an awkward silence between themselves and do not share the familiarity of former coworkers. It may point towards an affair that we are yet to discover, but Sneha definitely has more going on than she lets on. Heroically, it is Sneha playing a hostile witness that saves Gunna from going to jail—although she does not reveal anything, she may be lying by omission when she refuses to admit to knowing anything about the shady dealings between Meth Maharaja and Gunna.

Another minor character that has the potential to turn into a major one next season is Umar. Umar is a contender for the permanent role at the firm along with Tarunika. He and Tarunika share a healthy, humorous competition. He wants to climb the ladder, and he is willing to go beyond his comfort zone to do that, as he tells Lavanya. At the end of the season, we see Umar being offered a role at the rival law firm that conspired against Gunna. Umar might just accept the offer and turn things around for himself, as well as the other characters in the series, in the next season.

By refusing neat resolutions, Good Wife not only mirrors the messy negotiations of real life but also invites its audience to inhabit those ambiguities with its characters. If the first season has been about reclaiming space within familiar institutions like marriage, motherhood, and the law, the next may push its characters toward even more uncomfortable questions, like how far can one go for public restoration of image while staying true to private truths?