Criminal justice behind closed doors
To emit: Pankaj Tripathi, Kirti Kulhari, Anupriya Goenka, Deepti Naval, Mita Vashisht, Jisshu Sengupta, Shilpa Shukla
Directors: Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukerjee
Can a perfect father for a teenage daughterrape his wife behind closed doors? Can a professional and powerful woman fall prey to misogyny in the confines of her home? The unlikely answer to these two uncomfortable questions is yes, and the reality is often unknown to the victim herself. Criminal Justice Behind Closed Doors takes a look at the elegant homes of the rich and powerful, and the truths that lurk there.
Watch the trailer for Criminal Justice here
The eight-episode Hotstar Special series, spearheaded by Kirti Kulhari, moves slowly as it reveals an open and closed murder case as anything but. The plot is simple: a housewife stabs her perfect husband, with her 12-year-old daughter as the only witness. She confesses to the crime immediately and becomes attached to it. Only when state attorneys, Pankaj Tripathi and Anupriya Goenka, begin to undermine the motive for the murder, hidden facets begin to emerge. Even though your client doesn’t cooperate, the two of you keep trying to understand why he did.
Pankaj Tripathi in a still from the show.
With every evidence and testimony against him, including his daughter, his fate hangs in the balance. In this black and white case with no associated mystery, Pankaj’s entrance with her henna-decorated hands works. His timing, delivery of dialogue, and simplicity bring every scene in which he appears to life. Her character turns out to be a perfect example of how even the most socially enlightened men defend feminism but forget to apply the same concepts in their own lives.
Kirti plays the murder defendant with the utmost restraint; a woman who is more concerned with hiding her personal ‘shame’ than the repercussions of her crime. The actress follows in the footsteps of her Pink co-star Taapsee Pannu, delivering something as gripping and relevant as the first-ever domestic violence drama Thappad. Like Anubhav Sinha’s film, Criminal Justice also touches on the lives of the people involved in the case, illuminating them on what could be going wrong in their supposedly happy marriages. Break the spell of the perfect marriage concept as the creators delve into not one, but three marriages, each with a flaw of its own that is rarely noticed.
Also read: Kaagaz Trailer: Pankaj Tripathi is a walking dead man in Satish Kaushik’s film about a man’s fight against a piece of paper. Watch
Writer Apurva Asrani also deserves applause for opening the doors of the Indian justice system and a women’s prison to the public like never before. One cannot help but writhe in discomfort as Kirti struggles with sexual abuse, violence, manipulation, poor hygiene, and endless fear in prison. His restlessness and unease keeps him intrigued as he continues to fight behind bars without having any means to obtain justice.
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