Pankaj Tripathi, returns with his solid performance as a witty lawyer in Criminal Justice season 3, now streaming in Disney Plus Hoststar. The 40 minutes of each episode, does elevate your entertainment senses, and keeps you hooked.
Directed by Rohan Sippy and produced by Applause Entertainment in association with BBC Studios, is a good binge-watch. The gruesome killing of a young girl, a young lad in the dock for the crime, complex modern-day iterations of nuclear families, the inter-cutting between legal proceedings and cop procedures, overlaid with Mishra Ji’s signature cheeerfulness, has produced the right dose.
Over eight episodes, the web series draws the audience attention upon the widespread use of party drugs among, well, youngsters who party hard; the overarching impact of social media on our lives; and the challenges of parenting teenagers in today’s hyper-connected, Instagram-saturated times.
Criminal Justice Season 3 Review: Watch it online, its quite gripping
The upwardly mobile Ahujas are Swastika Mukherjee and Purab Kohli. They co-parent and manage teen social media star Zara and her step-brother Mukul, who is growing more nervous as a result of all the attention his sister receives both inside and outside the home. Gaurav Gera, Mukherjee’s ex-husband, gives a strong performance as a father who defends his kid under attack. A drug-fueled party that both young people secretly attended ends tragically: she is dead, and he is charged with her murder.
Enter Madhav Mishra, a keen-eyed dogsbody, along with his desi homegrown wisdom and tenacious commitment to support the cause of justice. You smile as you watch his humorous interactions with his wife, who is actively moving closer to realising her dream of opening a beauty salon. Additionally, his sparring match with the slick English-speaking, “foreign-educated” foe (Shweta Prasad Basu) serves as a reminder of how privilege may be challenged and how language can be used to create division.
Being “Hindi medium” doesn’t make our Mishraji any less of a “vakeel” since, in his opinion, being a decent person is just as significant as being on the winning team. Although some of these exchanges are obvious, Tripathi is self-aware and disarming, and we continue on the path of learning despite this. Yes, the murderer has been identified, and the series succeeds in keeping it a secret up until almost the very end.
Criminal Justice Season 3 is worth the time on TV.