Pankaj
Tripathi’s
Madhav
Mishra
is
one
of
the
most
entertaining
characters
created
for
an
Indian
Web
series,
and
the
actor
plays
him
with
relish,
observes
Deepa
Gahlot.
A
snooty
lawyer
for
a
large
law
firm
tells
Madhav
Mishra
(Pankaj
Tripathi)
that
they
value
his
services
because
he
has
an
‘aam
aadmi
chehra‘.
Mishra
appears
in
Criminal
Justice:
A
Family
Matter,
the
fourth
season
of
the
legal
thriller,
playing
once
again
a
lawyer
with
a
conscience,
a
sharp
mind
and
a
wiseass
attitude.
The
series
is
based
on
the
BBC
show
created
by
Peter
Moffat,
and
the
first
two
seasons
of
Criminal
Justice
had
used
plot
lines
from
the
original.
It
later
branched
off
into
its
own,
retaining
the
Lincoln
Lawyer-like
maverick
as
its
lead.
Over
the
seasons,
he
has
lost
some
of
his
‘aam
aadmi‘
rawness.
In
the
fourth
season,
with
Rohan
Sippy
returning
as
director,
he
is
now
a
lawyer
with
the
reputation
of
never
losing
a
case,
and
is
sought
after
by
corporate
law
firms
as
well
as
rich
clients.
Knowing
how
courts
work
in
our
country,
the
legal
aspects
of
the
series
go
into
the
realm
of
happily-ever-after
fairy
tales
but
Mishra’s
cheery
optimism
and
his
flirty
relationship
with
his
wife,
Ratna
(Khushboo
Atre)
—
the
two
have
worked
out
their
marital
problems
but
Mishra
has
not
been
able
to
shake
off
Ratna’s
brother
Deep
(Aatm
Prakash
Mishra),
an
eager
but
inept
assistant.
His
other
assistant
is
Shivani
Mathur
(Barkha
Singh),
daughter
of
a
courtroom
rival
from
the
past,
Mandira
Mathur
(Mita
Vashisht).
Also
returning
to
give
Mishra
some
professional
headache
is
the
ambitious
Lekha
Agastya
(Shweta
Basu
Prasad),
who
works
with
the
public
prosecutor’s
office,
which
is
swankier
than
what
a
real
one
would
be
in
India.
The
new
case
that
Mishra
takes
up
is
that
of
murder.
A
well
known
surgeon
Raj
Nagpal
(Mohammed
Zeeshan
Ayyub)
is
found
holding
the
blood-soaked
body
of
his
girlfriend,
Roshni
(Asha
Negi),
by
the
family
maid,
Kamala
(Amruta
Sant).
His
estranged
wife,
Anju
(Surveen
Chawla)
lives
next
door,
and
she
hires
Mishra
for
the
defence.
The
Nagpals
have
a
teenage
daughter,
Ira
(Khushi
Bhardwaj),
who
suffers
from
Asperger’s
Syndrome,
and
needs
special
care.
Raj’s
mother
(Sohaila
Kapur)
is
the
other
member
of
the
family.
A
party
for
Ira
gives
neighbours
reason
to
gossip
about
the
wife-lover
arrangement
and
a
bitter
fight
between
Raj
and
Roshni
offers
the
cops
a
reason
to
view
him
as
a
prime
suspect.
The
case
is
assigned
to
cop
Gauri
Karmarkar
(Kalyanee
Mulay),
and
it
would
have
been
an
open-and-shut
matter,
but
for
the
missing
murder
weapon.
Over
eight,
slow-paced
episodes,
the
murder
and
motives
are
fleshed
out,
other
characters
introduced
and
red
herrings
liberally
strewn
around.
Some
of
the
additions
(with
half
a
dozen
writers
working
it)
—
like
Gauri’s
marital
problems
or
Roshni’s
weeping
mother
—
do
not
add
much
to
the
story,
and
just
hold
up
the
flow.
Mentioning
more
of
the
plot
would
mean
giving
out
spoilers
but
Mishra
asks
a
very
crucial
question
in
the
end,
the
answer
to
which
is
not
convincing
at
all,
particularly
since
court
cases
in
India
go
on
for
years.
Madhav
and
his
team
act
more
like
investigators
than
lawyers
but
still,
the
show
inevitably
picks
up
when
the
court
scenes
arrive.
Watching
Tripathi,
Vashisht
and
Prasad
go
at
the
witnesses
and
mock
each
other
is
a
joy.
Although,
which
murder
case
without
a
celebrity
quotient
would
make
it
to
national
TV
news,
and
who
are
the
crowds
shouting
for
justice
outside
the
court?
The
cast
of
this
season
is
the
top
reason
to
watch
Criminal
Justice.
Pankaj
Tripathi’s
Madhav
Mishra
—
innately
decent
and
consistently
witty
—
is
one
of
the
most
entertaining
characters
created
for
an
Indian
Web
series,
and
the
actor,
showing
no
signs
of
ennui,
plays
him
with
relish.
Criminal
Justice
4
streams
on
JioHotstar.
Criminal
Justice
4
Review
Rediff
Rating:
