Criminal Justice

Few months ago, I had written a post on Sarabhai vs Sarabhai - Take 2. This serial was telecast as an Hotstar Original. The season 1 of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai was aired on the proper idiot box on Star 1. The second season was released online on hotstar.

I have always felt that nowadays, the serials that are on all these Star TV, Zee TV etc etc are actually useless. These saas bahu dramas, which once had value and people did watch with dedication are no longer appealing especially when multiple online options are available and that too, to a young audience.

The idiot box has now started looking actually idiot with all the intelligence (whatever present) transferred to the online vision serials.

There are lot many apps available and with the payment of a small amount, you can watch original soaps or serials or series on these apps. These serials, like Sarabhai vs Sarabhai - Take 2, were never released on the regular television. And then there were serials like 24, which starred movie stars like Anil Kapoor & were highly successful, super duper hit. 

These serials are more interesting then the current saas bahu serials which are aired on the regular television.

I happened to see a serial, a 10 episode one named Criminal Justice. Good storyline, well implemented, natural locations, good star cast & super acting.

After watching the serial, I started thinking a lot. Day & night the thoughts of this serial started roaming in my mind. Many of its scenes kept coming in my mind time & again. These scenes initiated a series of thoughts.

Thought 1: Its very natural for individuals in their 20's to get attracted & get carried away. In fact there is no age which can resist an attractive advance leading to a pleasurable sexual encounter. And nowadays, casual sexual encounters are very usual, occur on regular basis & a certain sect of the society finds such casual sexual encounters normal.

Aditya Sharma (around whom the main story revolves) - played by the actor Vikrant Massey - reluctantly agrees to drive the taxi (online run) which is run as a family business. In an urgency to go to a college party, he takes limited rides. But a girl just sits in the taxi, refusing to budge. She had booked the taxi online, the call refused by Aditya. Obstinate girl that she is, she sits in the taxi, forcing Aditya to take the ride. Eventually it is realized that the girl is a drug addict and is facing some sort of problem, unknown at the start, which unfolds at the end. Aditya, gets irritated as the girl keeps changing the destination again & again. But eventually budges to her demand. 

Ultimately, she puts her home as her last destination & Aditya leaves her. After a few minutes of returning back, Aditya realizes that the girl has left the mobile in the car. So he goes back to return the mobile. When he goes to her house, the girl feels guilty of troubling the taxi driver & invites Aditya to her plush apartment. During their brief encounter, they play some stupid yet risky games with a sharp knife. Later they have a casual sexual encounter which involves the girl giving Aditya some drugs & both eventually go to sleep.  

When Aditya wakes up, he finds the girl murdered & in fright & hurry, he takes the knife which had touched, with him. As he is hurriedly going back, he dashes a car & is picked up by the police. The police also realize about the murder. 

A local resident of the building the girl resided in identifies Aditya in the police station and he is arrested. 

From here starts the entire story.

Thought 2: Many a times I have heard people cribbing about the high fees they had to pay to the doctor. They usually say that doctors deliberately charge high fees. But fighting a court case is equally heavy on the pocket.

Aditya's family initially hire a cheap lawyer - Madhav Mishra played by Pankaj Tripathi who charges them Rs. 50,000. But the online taxi company hires a good corporate lawyer, on a Pro Bono basis, Mandira played by Mita Vashisht. 

I thought, though Mandira was a good lawyer, she makes 2 major mistakes, which severely affect Aditya & his family's life. While the police is still investigating his case, Mandira requests the court to put Aditya in jail till a proper verdict is given after a fair trial to prevent Aditya from getting tortured from the police. 

This exposes Aditya to the company of hardcore criminals. And here he meets 2 characters Mustafa played by Jackie Shroff & Layak played by Dibyendu Bhattacharya.

Layak is shown to be influential, negative, lustful & is always after Aditya & always finds ways to trouble him.                                                               

Mustafa, though shown to be a good person, he too being influential, protects Aditya when he pays Mustafa money in lakhs. In arranging this money, his sister's married life is severely affected.

Mandira, effectively helps Aditya and convinces the judge that, at the time of crime, Aditya & the victim had consensual sex, which acquits him of the rape charges put on him.
But how would she prove that he is not the murderer as the weapon was found in his coat pocket?  
x

Here, Mandira makes a second mistake where she requests Aditya to plead guilty of murder even though Aditya personally felt that he did not remember anything & there are high chances that he has not committed any crime. Mandira felt that if he would plead guilty of murder, the maximum charge Aditya would be sentenced to is, 10 years. But luckily Mandira's assistant advises against it and this decision of Aditya who pleads not guilty helps him in future.

Thought 3: I had observed it in the movie Pink and also in the current web series we are talking about, that the moment sexual act or some sex related talk occurs in relation to the feminine gender, the judge requests the proceedings to be shot in camera & not in public.

Do we actually think the same or is there any such provision made for masculine gender? Even in place like airports, movie theaters, malls etc males are frisked in open. Izzat to izzat hai, sabki hi hoti hai.

Nobody hears or understands Aditya's part, which makes him an overnight villan. The actual hero is the sidey, cheap lawyer who with the help of Mandira's junior assistant helps Aditya to prove himself innocent.

Where the dead female victim was rightly given due respect, the male version was never sort. And the web series rightly points that Aditya was heard properly only once, when he gave his comments in the end. Otherwise he was always interrogated when he was either scared or not in a proper frame of mind.

Thought 4: Prejudice. We humans live with lots of prejudices. And so did the cop in the web series - Raghu Salian played by Pankaj Saraswat. Dark skin color, economic background, sexual preferences and many such factors help determine the personal prejudice.

Raghu Salian had actually labelled Aditya a criminal even before the actual verdict. He thought that Aditya was the actual culprit because the cop himself had a daughter. But I was the audience. Till the actual mystery did not unfold, I was 100% sure that Aditya was innocent, no matter who thinks or says whatever. And that's because I have a son. I do not want him to be labelled negatively because of some fanatic thinker.

It took a lot of convincing from Madhav Mishra - the so called faltu lawyer but actually good, to reopen, re-investigate & prove Aditya innocent, after around 1.5 years of him spending stressful life in jail.

And I was correct & the real culprit was caught in the end & Aditya freed. But at what expense?

1. Aditya spend around 1.5 years with hard core criminals even though he was dead sure that he was innocent but proven guilty due to lack of proper evidence.

2. His sister's marriage broke. Her new born child had to brought up with lots of difficulty. She lost her job too.

3. His family taxi business stopped. Nobody brought anything from his Father's kirana shop which had to be shut down ultimately.

4. Media people who in the background, claimed to hear Aditya's version of the truth, attracted his family members on their show ultimately berating him.

I have loved it immensely. Superbly written by Shridhar Raghavan & directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia & Vishal Furia, Criminal Justice is thrilling, mysterious, entertaining, factual, eye opener - A must see.