CRIMINAL JUSTICE - BEHIND THE DOORS REVIEW

 CRIMINAL JUSTICE - BEHIND THE DOORS is a good one time watch series with a great message and some sharp performances. The series starts with Bikram Chandra (Jisshu Sengupta), who is a celebrated lawyer and is living a good life. He lives with his Anuradha Chandra (Kirti Kulhari), who is said that she is suffering from depression and often forgets things. One night, she stabs her husband in bed, calls the ambulance and leaves the house with her stabbed husband and a 12-year old daughter. Now enters Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi), who on his first night leaves her wife and agrees to fight the case despite all lawyer community standing against him. He also gets Nikhat's (Anupriya Goenka) support. Now, will they be able to save Anu, who is suffering from depression and mental trauma, or will she lose the case?

DIRECTION AND STORY - The biggest strength of Criminal Justice was that it was unpredictable. They left the suspense for the last and that suited the cause because audiences were in for a surprise and it was a full on rollercoaster. The season-2, which delivers a great message fails on that aspect because it is predictable from the word go. By the end of episode 1, I got a fair idea of twists and turns coming in this 8 episode long series. Some of the twists were not predictable, but they didn't really entered the center of things. The direction is good and the last 2 episodes are super-engaging. Another fault I can point out here is that the show is titled Criminal Justice but the proceedings in court start in the last episodes, making the whole scenario tedious. Instead, humor takes the front seat in this one with Pankaj Tripathi and Khushboo Atre bringing their A-game and entertaining the audiences.

PERFORMANCES - Pankaj Tripathi as Madhav Mishra is a rage and the ends the year with a bang-on performance. This year we saw him in Mirzapur 2, Ludo, Gunjan Saxena and now with this one, its safe to say that he was the star of the year. He has given a mindblowing performance and words fall short now talking about him. He is just giving killer performances one after the other.
Kirti Kulhari has done a fine job as Anuradha Chandra. Her character arc was really difficult to portray but she has given her level best and gives a brilliant performance. Khushboo Atre as Ratna compliments Pankaj Tripathi fantastically and gives a thunderous performance. She plays Madhav's wife and the husband-wife jokes fall rightly and make you laugh wholeheartedly. Jisshu Sengupta as Bikram Chandra does a good job. Anupriya Goenka as Nikhat does a wonderful job and gives a good performance. Deepti Naval and Mita Vashisht also give fine performances. Ajit Singh Palawat and Kalyanee Mulay give fantastic performances as well. Rest others support the cast exceptionally well.

FINAL WORDS - The show is slow yet entertaining and will keep you engaged throughout because of its humor and execution. But what remains missing is the suspense and the court proceedings for which its first season was applauded for. The show is still a good watch for those who love slow burning thrillers. Overall, I would say you can watch this one for its great performances, a brilliant message and good humor. 3.5 Stars from my side.