It happened quite repeatedly in 2023 and 2024, especially but not exclusively on Disney+Hotstar. A web series (and there is a sizable chunk that feels all web series are bingeworthy) was split into weekly episodes, just like any television serial, and aired! Now that Jio has joined Hotstar, I thought things would change, but woe and behold! They have not.
The fourth season of Criminal Justice, A Family Matter, has had only three episodes released on May 26. It seems Episode 4 (of five more) will come on June 5 at midnight, and so on…
Now, this is a criminal injustice on the viewer! And specifically for me, I will have to wait five more weeks to write the review, by which time other series and movies will have come to dull a detailed memory, which is so important to write a critique. Two, if the script and show plummet in the remaining episodes, the series will get a false positive review from me, and the reverse is also possible!
ADVERTISEMENT
And so, my review as well as rating is, of necessity, guarded and conditional!
Criminal Justice 4 has so far been as promising as the rest. Dr. Raj Mishra (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) is a top cardiothoracic surgeon in Mumbai, and is separated from wife Anju (Surveen Chawla), who lives in the apartment opposite his since they parted ways. Anju says that they will soon be filing for divorce.
The two have a daughter, Ira (Khushi Bharadwaj), who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. Roshni Saluja (Asha Negi), a nurse, is hired to look after her and is a big success. Roshni and Raj develop feelings for each other.
Then comes the big happening. Roshni and Raj have a quarrel on Ira’s birthday party night and she leaves the party in tears. The next morning, the domestic help finds Roshni dead, her throat slit, lying in Raj’s arms. Raj is dazed, and there is a pool of blood. The maid screams, Anju comes out of her flat, witnesses the scene and calls the police.
Heading the investigation is doughty sub-inspector Gauri (Kalyanee Mulay), who arrests Raj on the flimsy evidence seen. Anju appoints ace lawyer Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi) and the legal battle will soon begin. The weapon is missing and there are three more twists in the tale to baffle the police.
…And intrigue the audience too, who will have to wait over a month to unravel the truth, unlike with the previous three seasons, two of which were directed by this series’ captain, Rohan Sippy!
Pankaj Tripathi is increasingly getting into the skin of Madhav, and so is Khushboo Atre, his loving but completely adorable and scatterbrained better half, Ratna. Pankaj is magnificent yet again as the ever-smiling, Hindi-loving attorney whose sharpness is realized only too late by opponents as he looks deceptively simple.
Khushi Bharadwaj is outstanding as Ira, and exhibits the prime characteristics of the Syndrome very well, beginning with an unwillingness for eye contact. Surveen Chawla puts in a restrained turn as the hapless Anju, while Asha Negi is excellent as Roshni. Raj is correctly underplayed by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. Standing out among the rest are Kalyanee Mulay as Gauri and Pankaj Saraswat as DCP Raghu Salian. There are powerhouse performers like Shweta Basu Prasad and Mita Vashisht but in the first three episodes, they have, as yet, nothing to do.
Gauging the way the series seems to be going, I can only pity the director, Rohan Sippy, and his team of writers, Anurag Pandey, Harman Wadala, Sandeep Jain and Sameer Mishra, because, in a reverse way of sorts, their sterling work seems to be shackled and compromised by JioHotstar’s “ravages of time”!
Rating: **** (as of Episode 3)
JioHotstar presents BBC Productions India’s & Applause Entertainment’s Criminal Justice: A Family Matter Created by: Harman Wadala, Rahul Ved Prakash, Varsha Ramachandran & Riya Poojary Produced by: Sameer Nair, Deepak Segal & Sameer Gogate Directed by: Rohan Sippy Written by: Anurag Pandey, Harman Wadala, Sandeep Jain & Sameer Mishra Music: Sameer Phatarphekar & Anirban Sengupta Starring: Pankaj Tripathi, Surveen Chawla, Asha Negi, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Khushi Bharadwaj, Khushboo Atre, Shweta Basu Prasad, Barkha Singh, Kalyanee Mulay, Pankaj Saraswat, Rajesh Khera, Ajeet Singh Palawat, Sohaila Kapur. Raaj Gopal Iyer, Aatm Prakash Mishra, Garrvil Mohan & others