Criminal Justice Web Series Review: The story of Criminal Behind Closed Doors is very simple and predictable. The writer has not tried to complicate it unnecessarily through the screenplay. The focus has been more on the issue than the thriller quotient. The layers of Vikram Chandra’s character start opening as the series begins.
Manoj Vashisht, New Delhi. A few days before the curtain falls on 2020, another much-awaited web series ‘Criminal Justice – Behind Closed Doors‘ has reached the mobile and laptops of the audience. As the next offering of Hotstar Specials, the web series was released on Disney Plus Hotstar on December 24 in 7 languages. ‘Criminal Justice – Behind Closed Doors’ is spread over a total of eight episodes and the duration of each episode is about one hour.
Before discussing any other aspect of ‘Criminal Justice – Behind Closed Doors’, it is important to mention its writer Apurva Asrani. Apurva, who was a film editor for years, made his first feature film as a writer, ‘Aligarh’, which was directed by Hansal Mehta. Those who have seen ‘Aligarh’ will easily understand the significance and necessity of ‘Criminal Justice – Behind Closed Doors’ written by Apurva.
Apurva, who highlighted the pain and agony of the gay community through ‘Aligarh’, has through this web series brought an issue related to women from behind closed doors to the front, which is often not considered an issue. ‘Criminal Justice – Behind Closed Doors’, along with being a court drama, furthers Apurva’s mission of portraying human sensibilities.
The story of the web series is simply that Bikram Chandra (Jishu Sengupta) is a famous and successful lawyer of Bombay High Court. At home, there is wife Anuradha Chandra (Kirti Kulhari) and 12-year-old daughter Riya (Adrija Sinha), who studies in school. Anuradha remains lost in thoughts. She is suffering from depression and stress, for which she is being treated by Dr. Moksh Singhvi (Ayaz Hussain Khan). Singhvi’s daughter Riddhi is Riya’s friend. Both families know each other well.
Bikram and Anuradha’s life seems perfect, but one night Anuradha tries to kill Bikram by stabbing him. Vikram gets seriously injured. Everyone is shocked by Anuradha’s action. Due to Bikram’s clean image and friendly nature, Anuradha does not get sympathy from anyone.
Even daughter Riya starts hating him. Anuradha confesses her crime in front of the police. Senior police officer Raghu Salian (Pankaj Saraswat) calls lawyer Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi) to fight Anu Chandra’s case because no other lawyer is ready to fight her case.
Madhav explains to her that she should plead not guilty in the court. But, Anuradha, suffering from guilt, confesses her crime in the court as well. Despite Madhav Mishra’s repeated attempts to convince her, she does not break her silence. Meanwhile, Bikram dies in the hospital and Anuradha is charged with murder instead of attempted murder.
The only way left for Madhav to save Anuradha is to investigate himself and find out the right and wrong. But Anu Chandra’s silence remains the biggest obstacle in his path. During Madhav’s investigation and trial, many shocking things come to light and such secrets are revealed, which raise questions about women’s rights even in today’s era.
The story of ‘Criminal Behind Closed Doors’ is very straightforward and predictable. The writer has not tried to complicate it through the screenplay. With small twists and turns, the focus has been more on the issue than the thriller quotient. The layers of Vikram Chandra’s character start opening up as the series begins. The reason why Bikram’s wife is forced to kill him and on which the essence of the entire series rests, the audience also gets an idea of that important reason in the initial scenes. However, it is revealed in the last episode.
But, despite this, ‘Criminal Justice – Behind Closed Doors’ maintains curiosity. A lot of credit for this goes to the emotions in the story and the actors of the series. Struggling lawyer Madhav Mishra is as simple as he is cunning. Pankaj Tripathi has played Madhav Mishra with full intensity. In the serious story, the banter between Madhav and his wife Ratna seems soothing.
Kirti Kulhari has deepened the silence of Anuradha Chandra with her acting. She is a wife who, despite all the comforts, is living with the fear that her husband might feel bad about something she says. Anuradha is educated, but the feeling of inferiority has shaken her self-confidence. Kirti has been successful in expressing this conflict. Anupriya Goenka has impressed with her presence in the role of Madhav Mishra’s associate Nikhat Hussain.
Criminal Justice Web Series Review Jishu Sengupta has successfully brought out the dark side of Bikram Chandra’s character. Other actors include Deepti Naval (Vikram Chandra’s mother Vijji Chandra), Mita Vashisht (senior lawyer Mandira Mathur), Ashish Vidyarthi (public prosecutor – Dheepan Prabhu), Shilpa Shukla (Ishani Nath – prisoner), Kalyani Mule (female police officer Gauri Pradhan), Ajit Singh Pahlavat (investigating officer Harsh Pradhan and Gauri Pradhan’s husband), Khushboo Atre (Ratna Mishra – Madhav Mishra’s wife) have kept the series moving with their acting. While ‘Criminal Justice – Behind Closed Doors’ brings forth the big issue of domestic abuse in married life through the main character, it also highlights many such subtle things related to women through other female characters, which gradually conspire to weaken their existence. The series also comments on the parallel media trials going on in today’s times, which is shown through the character of Ashish Vidyarthi, when he insists on using the media trial to his advantage instead of telling it right or wrong. The direction of Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukherjee is well-balanced. It does not let the series fall apart. The directors have kept the sensitive story away from too much drama. The scenes of the women’s prison leave an impact.
