Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors

Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors is an Indian Hindi-language legal drama web series for Hotstar Specials written by Apurva Asrani and directed by Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukerjee. The series stars Pankaj Tripathi, Kirti Kulhari, Jisshu Sengupta and Khushboo Atre, and was released through Disney+ Hotstar on 24 December 2020.[1]

Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors
Promotional poster
GenreCrime
Legal drama
Thriller
Written byApurva Asrani
Directed by
Starring
ComposerSameer Phaterpekar
Country of originIndia
Original languageHindi
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Siddharth Khaitan
  • Rajesh Chadha
Producers
Sameer Nair
Deepak Segal
Production locationIndia
Running time41-60 minutes
Production companiesBBC Studios India
Applause Entertainment
Release
Original networkHotstar
Original release24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Related

Cast
  • Pankaj Tripathi as Madhav Mishra, Advocate
  • Jisshu Sengupta as Bikram Chandra, popular advocate, victim
  • Deepti Naval as Vijaya (Vijji) Chandra, mother of Bikram Chandra
  • Kirti Kulhari as Anuradha Chandra, Bikram Chandra's Wife
  • Anupriya Goenka as Nikhat Hussain, Mandira's former assistant
  • Mita Vashisht as Mandira Mathur, Corporate Lawyer
  • Ashish Vidyarthi as Dipen Prabhu, Public Prosecutor
  • Ayaz Khan as Dr. Moksh Singhvi
  • Shilpa Shukla as Ishani Nath
  • Padma Damodaran as Justice Alka Sharma
  • Vibhavari Deshpande as Mukta Tai
  • Adrija Sinha as Rhea Chandra, Anu & Bikram's Daughter
  • Khushboo Atre as Ratna Mishra, Madhav Mishra's wife
  • Nilofar Gheshwat as Pushpa
  • Ajeet Singh Palawat as Sub-Inspector Harsh Pradhan
  • Kalyanee Mulay as Asst. Sub-Inspector Gauri Pradhan; also Harsh's wife

Episodes
No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release date
1"A Perfect Family"Rohan SippyApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Bikram Chandra is a high profile lawyer in Mumbai. He is seen fighting a case for a family without much means. His wife Anuradha is at home, and is seen contemplating over her medication, before discarding the same. She doesn't pick Bikram's phone and goes to see Moksh, another high profile lawyer in town, who is also a family friend. Bikram calls Anu a number of times, but she does not pick his calls. Later, she calls Bikram from a super market. Bikram meets Mandira after that and also asks to give case to Nikhat, who was her assistant in the first season of Criminal Justice. Once home, Bikram checks Anu's phone and notes an unlisted number on her call list. After putting their daughter Rhea to bed, he joins Anu in bed. He tries to make love to her, but she is not in a mood. He asks her to get vaseline from downstairs, Anu picks up a knife, crawls into bed and stabs Bikram. She leaves the house as if in a daze after phoning a Hospital. Rhea is woken from her sleep and enters her parents' bedroom to find her father stabbed. She pulls the knife out of her father's side and calls her grandma. The police takes Rhea with them and arrests Anu from the Hospital. Anu confesses to stabbing Bikram. The police chief calls Madhav Mishra, an obscure lawyer, who gets only the most hopeless cases, to find if he would be interested in this case. As things are, Madhav has just got married in Patna. He leaves his newly wed wife and takes a flight for Mumbai on his first night.
2"Open and Shut"Rohan SippyApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Pradhan, Gauri and Madhav Mishra interview the Chandra house staff and discover new information. However, the situation worsens when Anu goes against Madhav's advice in court. Anu confesses her crime in Police Station and in the court too due to Prahdan police officer who is quite sure and wants to take all the procedures for the case fast, and because he is almost biased in believing that Anu is to be blamed.
3"A Reasonable Doubt"Rohan SippyApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
In jail, Anu meets Ishani who takes her under her wing. However Ishani later shows her true colours and starts misbehaving with Anu. Outside, Madhav convinces Nikhat to meet Anu and manages to pass on a message to Rhea, her daughter. Due to which Rhea demands to meet with Anu, which makes Anu really happy for the first time.
4"Murder"Rohan SippyApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Pradhan is determined to record Rhea's statement before she meets Anu, by blackmailing CWC head lady. Getting wind of this, Madhav stakes out Vijji’s house, where he is able to take pictures of people present in the house (prosecutor, Mandira, Pradhan, Gauri) during the statement recording of Rhea as a prime witness. Meanwhile, Vijji gets a call from the hospital that Bikram is awake and when they all reach to the hospital, Bikram takes his last breath.
5"Broken Dreams"Arjun MukerjeeApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Seven months have passed, and Mandira and Vijji have engaged a new hotshot prosecutor, Prabhu who is quite confident in his capabilities to win the case and determine to make Anu murderer both in the eyes of the court and Public through media. In the meantime, Madhav and Nikhat delve into Anu's past, which sheds new light on Bikram. As both meets Anu's father who tells them he was always in contact of Bikram and who also paid bills during his surgery 2 years back, while also claiming to both the father and daughter individually that another one doesn't wish to see them, creating distances. Bikram also seem to cut Anu's all the links with the outside world.
6"The Truth is Born"Arjun MukerjeeApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Madhav and Nikhat's suspicions about Bikram mount when they record Rhea's statement, where they get to know that Bikram used Rhea to keep an eye on her mother, who she talks to and what she does. In the jail, A woman named Sudha befriends Anu, and following her son being taken away to an adoption house after six years in jail, Sudha commits suicide, urging Anu to get out before the same happens with her. At the same time, a DNA test due to request of Pradhan, reveals a shocking new twist, that child with whom Anu is pregnant is not Bikram's, but Moksh's, having his medical licence suspended.
7"The Trial Begins"Arjun MukerjeeApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
The trial begins, and Prabhu paints Anu as a scheming villainess. When Rhea and Moksh take the stand, Nikhat and Madhav unravel some interesting facts.
8"Out in the Open"Arjun MukerjeeApurva Asrani24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Nikhat leads in the final stages of the trial, in which an unexpected witness testifies. But when an overlooked piece of evidence is re-examined, the truth surfaces.

Production

Development

On 12 February 2020, Sameer Nair, CEO of Aditya Birla Group's content studio Applause Entertainment and BBC Studios India, announced for the sequel of Criminal Justice, which will be adapted from the second season of the 2008 British original series.[2] Sameer Gogate, business head of production at BBC Studios India said "The success of season one has shown what good content can achieve, and we hope the second season will be equally loved by the audiences."[2] While Pankaj Tripathi, Anupriya Goenka and Mita Vashisht were reported to reprise their roles from the first season, the makers did not reveal about the new cast and crew, including the director.[3]

In April 2020, the makers announced that Kirti Kulhari will appear in the new season, with Apurva Asrani roped in as the screenwriter and Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukherjee were roped in to helm the series. On 3 December 2020, the makers announced the new title as Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors.[4]

Filming

Principal shooting of the series took place in March 2020, but was immediately stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India.[5] The shoot was resumed in July 2020, with the makers following the safety guidelines imposed by the government in order to curb COVID-19 spread. The entire season is shot at three locations spanning over 60-70 working days.[1][6] Shooting of the series was completed in September 2020.[5]

Release

The series was initially scheduled for a release in November 2020, before being postponed to December.[6] On 8 December 2020, the makers unveiled character posters of the series,[7] with the trailer being unveiled on 10 December 2020.[8][9] The series released on Disney+ Hotstar on 24 December 2020 in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi languages.

Reception

Ektaa Malik, writing for The Indian Express gave three out of five and said, "Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors is a gripping morality tale, that is not to be missed".[10] Divyanshi Sharma of India Today, gave three-and-a-half out of five and stated, "Criminal Justice is an important show, if not the most perfect one. And with every episode ending at a point where you want to know what happens next, it comes across as a successful thriller. The show ends on a bittersweet note, reminding us that no matter how much it rains, the sun will always shine."[11] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave three-and-a-half out of five and said, "As a legal drama, Criminal Justice S2 is pretty close to being top-notch. But it is its sharp-eyed exploration of women seeking equality in life and at work that elevates the series to a higher plane".[12] Tatsam Mukherjee from Firstpost stated "Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors flirts with the notorious brand of 'realistic' that traverses the line of exploitative and vulgar."[13] Nandini Ramnath from Scroll.in wrote " Kirti Kulhari’s heartrending performance is especially laudable considering her frustrating passiveness for the part. By reserving Anu’s transformation until the very end, the series reveals how hard it is for women to publicly admit to violence."[14]

Sequel

Further information: Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach

The third installment was released on 26 August 2022 with Pankaj Tripathi and Shweta Basu Prasad in the lead roles. Pankaj Tripathi and Khushboo Atre would be reprising their roles from previous 2 seasons, whereas Purab Kohli, Swastika Mukherjee, Adinath Kothare, Kalyanee Mulay, Aaditya Gupta, Deshna Dugad and Aatm Prakash Mishra are new addition to the cast.

References
  1. Borah, Prabalika M. (16 December 2020). "Set reaction: Shilpa Shukla on 'Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors'". The Hindu. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  2. "Hotstar's Criminal Justice Renewed for Season 2". NDTV Gadgets 360. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  3. Ramachandran, Naman (12 February 2020). "India's Hotstar Signs Second Season of BBC, Applause Thriller 'Criminal Justice'". Variety. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  4. Hungama, Bollywood (3 December 2020). "EXCLUSIVE SCOOP: Title of Pankaj Tripathi starrer Criminal Justice season 2 on Disney+ Hotstar revealed : Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  5. Hungama, Bollywood (18 September 2020). "Criminal Justice 2: Makers complete shoot; plan to release in November : Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  6. Khan, Talib (18 December 2020). "Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors with Directors Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukerjee". Jagran English. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  7. "Disney Hotstar Criminal Justice season 2 trailer will be out on this day, shares new character posters! - Rediff Realtime News". Rediff. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  8. "Criminal Justice Season 2 trailer: Pankaj Tripathi's Madhav is back with a bang". The Indian Express. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  9. "Criminal Justice 2 trailer: Pankaj Tripathi's Madhav Mishra returns for a big payday, watch". Hindustan Times. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  10. Malik, Ektaa (24 December 2020). "Criminal Justice Season 2 review: A gripping morality tale". The Indian Express. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  11. "Criminal Justice 2 Review: Kirti Kulhari and Pankaj Tripathi power a hard-hitting tale". 24 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  12. "Criminal Justice 2 Review: Legal Drama Is Pretty Close To Being Top Notch". NDTV.com. 9 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  13. "Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors review — Kirti Kulhari, Pankaj Tripathi's show tries too hard to come off as realistic". Firstpost. 25 December 2020.
  14. Ramnath, Nandini. "'Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors' review: A victim of domestic abuse learns to fight back". Scroll.in.
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