Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors

Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors
File:CJ- Behind Closed Doors Poster.jpeg Promotional poster
Genre	Crime Legal drama Thriller
Written by	Apurva Asrani
Directed by	Rohan Sippy Arjun Mukerjee
Starring	Pankaj Tripathi Jisshu Sengupta Kirti Kulhari Khushboo Atre Anupriya Goenka Mita Vashisht Pankaj Saraswat
Composer	Sameer Phaterpekar
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Siddharth Khaitan Rajesh Chadha
Producers	Sameer Nair Deepak Segal
Production location	India
Running time	41-60 minutes
Production companies	BBC Studios India Applause Entertainment
Distributor	Star India
Release
Original network	Hotstar
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Original release	24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Chronology
Preceded by	Criminal Justice (2019)
Related shows	Criminal Justice The Night Of

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, Khushboo Atre and Jisshu Sengupta, and was released through Disney+ Hotstar on 24 December 2020.

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,Vikram chandra's Wife
• Adrija Sinha as Rhea Chandra, Anu & Bikram's Daughter
• 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 Naag
• 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.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"A Perfect Family"	Rohan Sippy	Apurva Asrani	24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
Eminent lawyer Bikram Chandra's happy life takes a nosedive when his wife, Anuradha, stabs him. Cops are baffled with her, and finding a lawyer for her looks impossible. Episode starts with Bikram fighting a case for a family from a small background family. Anuradha throws her medicine tablet in dustbin at house, doesn't picks Bikram's phone and goes to see Moksh. After that Anuradha is in Market buying grocery when she calls Bikram. Bikram meets Mandira after that and also asks to give case to Nikhat, who was her assistant in the first season of Criminal Justice. Coming Home, Bikram suspects Anu and after series of events those come out to be true. Bikram misbehaves with Anu after telling her she lied to him. While grabbing Vaseline from downstairs, Anu also takes knife with her and kills Bikram, fleeing from the house after informing in the Hospital. Their daughter Rhea comes to their room and sees that her father is stabbed, calls her grandma while also taking knife into her hand. Police takes Rhea with them and arrests Anu from the City Hospital. Anu confesses the crime to help Rhea, so she doesn't stays as a suspect. Madhav is called to take Anu's case from his wedding night.
2	"Open and Shut"	Rohan Sippy	Apurva Asrani	24 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 Sippy	Apurva Asrani	24 December 2020 (2020-12-24)
In jail, Anu meets Ishani who takes her under her wing. 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 Sippy	Apurva Asrani	24 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 Mukerjee	Apurva Asrani	24 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 Mukerjee	Apurva Asrani	24 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. At the same time, a DNA test duue 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 Mukerjee	Apurva Asrani	24 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 Mukerjee	Apurva Asrani	24 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. 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." 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.

In April 2020, the makers announced that Kirti Kulhari will appear in the new season, with Apurva Asrani roped in as the screen writer 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.

Filming

Prinicpal shooting of the series took place on March 2020, but was immediately stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India. 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. Shooting of the series was completed on September 2020.

Release

The series was initially scheduled for a release on November 2020, before being postponed to December. On 8 December 2020, the makers unveiled character posters of the series, with the trailer being unveiled on 10 December 2020. 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". 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." 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".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." 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."

External links

• Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors on IMDb