On: Hotstar
Director: Arjun Mukherjee and Rohan Sippy
Cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Kirti Kulhari, Jisshu Sengupta 
Rating: 

I had read somewhere that originality is a byproduct of sincerity and that is probably the beauty of Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors. Unlike Season 1 that was adapted from the original BBC show by the same name, the second one fares better due to its ingenuity.

Like most fans of the franchise, I went in wanting to marvel at Pankaj Tripathi playing his best performance as advocate Madhav Mishra. But nothing had prepared me for the robust storytelling of directors Rohan Sippy and Arjun Mukherjee. The credit here goes largely to the fine writing. Apurva Asrani, best known for Shahid and Aligarh, has penned the screenplay for the eight-part series and has done a nifty job at that. There's a great deal of detailing in the way he constructs the character of protagonist Anuradha Chandra (Kirti Kulhari) who is under trial for the murder of her husband, top lawyer Bikram Chandra (Jisshu Sengupta). On the surface, they are a happy couple with a beautiful young daughter - Rhea (Mishti Sinha). He is handsome. He is successful. He appears to be a caring husband, cancelling work to spend time with family. He is righteous, fighting to be on the right side of history by fighting for the rights of those rendered powerless by the system. And yet, one night, he unsuspectingly finds himself stabbed by his wife. A survivor of clinical depression and acute anxiety, Anuradha is far too fidgety to be reliable. With details missing in her narrative as to what really happened on that fateful night, she finds herself at odds with the entire world, especially her daughter who is the only eye-witness to the incident.