Cast: Kirti Kulhari, Pankaj Tripathi, Jisshu Sengupta, Adrija Sinha, Anupriya Goenka, Mita Vashisht, Ashish Vidyarthi, Deepti Naval
Director: Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukherjee
BLUF
Anu Chandra stabs her lawyer-husband Bikram Chandra in bed. She leaves the house in her nightdress and then calls emergency services. The man lies bleeding in bed and their 12-year-old daughter Rhea partially witnesses the stabbing.
Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors, an eight-part Hotstar Specials about the cold-blooded murder of a well-respected lawyer by his wife. The eight episodes unravel the reason for the murder apart from the complicated relationship between the couple that the whole world thought was perfect. At the trial, the prosecution, treats it as an open and shut case, the investigating cops are biased and the media runs its own party and verdicts. But the defense counsels Madhav Mishra & Nikhat Hussain, their intuition tells them that there is more to it than meets the eye as the accused clamps up.
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES
Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukherjee direct four episodes each. The flawless performances from Pankaj Tripathi, Kirti Kulhari, and Anupriya Goenka catalyze the narrative of a very well written plot where instead of following the cliched chronicle of the murder plot, it explores the emotional fragility, trauma, and fears of a painfully abused caught in the claws of the Indian justice and prison system which has its own internal political system of justice.
The investigation, filing of the charge-sheet, and the court trial stretch over a period of ten months where the pregnant woman delivers a baby which changes her motivation from being a silent spectator to her injustices to someone who needs to protect herself to survive.
IN THE ZONE
The actors could not be more brilliantly cast. A magnificent Ashish Vidyarthi, a splendid Mita Vashisht, Deepti Naval at her dazzling best, Jishu Sengupta’s perfect psychopathology, Pankaj Tripathi’s balanced act, and Anupriya Goenka’s audacity are almost perfect in their portrayal and chemistry.
Kirti Kulhari shines in every scene. The interplay between the different characters and the impact that has on the verdict of the woman in prison is intricately woven and perhaps one of the best aspects of the narrative.
FWAR
The series traverses its own momentum in a passive yet cautious pace of a plot that flips and spins across surprises and outcomes as the implicated woman’s lawyers take on a case of the murder of one of their own on behalf of a woman who is least interested in saving herself. The psychology of women who are abused in an apparent stockholmish affinity to their own abusers and the cost they pay for any retaliation is a theme in the women’s cell.
WHAT WE LOVED
The story, the direction, the impeccable cast
WHAT WE MISSED
Some loose ends. The real story behind the drugs, the psychopathy of the dead husband were not explored to the conclusion.
