Criminal Justice - Adhura Sach - Battling For Justice
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-10-08 07:43:47
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
At the
outset, it needs to be stated that Criminal Justice - Adhura Sach (all 7
episodes now streaming on Disney-Hotstar) tries to look at too many things but
fails to do justice to most of them as it does not explore then well. Having
said that, the 7-episode series is otherwise well-crafted and allows Pankaj
Tripathi (as the street smart lawyer Madhav Mishra) to continue the good work
he did in the two earlier seasons. The supporting cast of Shweta Basu-Prasad
(London-educated public prosecutor with a dad who is rolling in money), Swastika
Mukherjee (Avantika Ahuja), Purab Kohli (Avanitka's husband Neeraj), Deshna
Duga (as Zara, the TV child star with a huge fan following) and Aaditya Gupta
(as Zara's zealous step-brother Mukul who has a history of anger-management, is
undergoing therapy and becomes the prime suspect for her murder) are all good.
The story
is about how a child TV start, Zara, is brutally murdered while on a workcation
in an upcoming resort. Sibling rivalry, where it is proved that Zara's
step-brother Mukul could not stand her and had even recorded in his dictaphone (as
per the instructions of his therapist to record everything when he is extremely angry) that 'mar kyon nahin jati' (why doesn't
she die). Lekha, the public prosecutor uses this and evidence from the crime
scene, like Mukul's fingerprints on the acid jar, the fact that he dragged her
from the party in his car and brought her to the beach and he was the last
person who saw her, to haul him up as the prime suspect and asks for him to be
tried as an adult as per Section 19 of the JJ Act.
Meanwhile,
Mukul's mother Avantika approaches Madhav Mishra to defend her son as she
cannot afford a fancy lawyer after her current husband Neeraj freezes her
accounts and cards as he strongly believes that Mukul actually murdered Zara.
While Avantika's first husband lends moral support, he is not that well-off to
pitch in financially. Madhav Mishra, on the other hand, is convinced that the
case is not as simple as it is made out by the police and the PP. He tries to
discover the truth in his inimitable fashion. With a little bit of sleuthing,
some putting of two-plus-two together and a little help from social media,
Mishra is able to crack the case and bring the real murderer before the court.
The court
scenes and the cross-examination of witnesses are done well. The scenes between
Shweta Basu-Prasad as the cocksure PP who thinks Mishra is a buffoon not fit to
be a lawyer and Mishra are also brilliant. But some sub-plots, like the attempt
to escape from the juvenile home, were unnecessary and take the focus away from
the main story. In the end, the series tries to show how even normal people
become devils when they lose one of their own and commit a ghastly crime,
something which they can never otherwise think of doing. Adhura Sach could have
been much better if some parts were dropped and others were explored better.
Yet, watch it for superb performances from Pankaj Tripathi, Swastika Mukherjee
and Shweta Basu-Prasad.
