Criminal Justice Season 4 Review: Pankaj Tripathi, Surveen Chawla shoulder a gripping courtroom story

At the heart of Criminal Justice Season 4: A Family Matter is indeed a family matter, and that of the affluent Nagpal family. Raj Nagpal (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and his estranged wife Anju Nagpal (Surveen Chawla) live in the same building, but in different apartments. They share a teenage daughter, Ira, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome. Then there's Raj's mother, Gurmeet, and his girlfriend Roshni Saluja (Asha Negi), who is also Ira's nurse. It's a modern family, and everyone seems to have come to terms with the arrangement.

All seems well until one day, their shared househelp Kamala walks in to see a dead Roshni lying in a pool of blood in Raj's arms. Her cry for help reaches Anju, who rushes from next door, and immediately calls up the police. Raj is now the prime suspect in the police investigation and Anju reaches out to lawyer Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi) for help. What follows is a taut murder investigation - with the angles of police interrogation, courtroom drama and a parallel media trial.

For a murder mystery and an investigative thriller to work, the makers need to lay their cards and clues one at a time, and that's one of this season's biggest strengths. Director Rohan Sippy, who is also at the helm of the previous two seasons, unravels secrets through the course of eight episodes, giving viewers enough time and reasons to suspect each character who enters the narration. Layers start to shed and plot begins to twist as more and more characters enter the list of accused. The storytelling allows for an easy expansion of the trial and writers Harman Wadala, Sandeep Jain and Sameer Mishra weave hints, twists and turns with a sharpness that's hard to ignore. However, its runtime of eight episodes feels slightly stretched.

But the genre is only as good as its characters - the accused and the advocates. Pankaj Tripathi, who returns as a swankier version of Madhav Mishra, delivers a brilliant portrayal of an easy-going advocate. Even in the chaos of a courtroom, Tripathi brings a sense of calmness. He now owns a fancy office, but at his core, he's still an ordinary man with just basics to fight his fight with. This is established right in the beginning when he doesn't fear jeopardizing his big fat pay cheque job because of a client he decides to represent. There's also Barkha Singh, Khushboo Atre and Aatm Prakash Mishra as his aides. In the courtroom, his team is pitted against Shweta Basu Prasad and Mita Vashisht, both of whom deliver a fine performance. Kalyanee Mulay, who essays the role of sub-inspector Gauri Karmarkar and Ajeet Singh Palawat, who is her ex-husband and senior inspector Harsh, do justice to their roles, but one does wish their story was fleshed out further - yet another family matter waiting to be explored.

Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is spot on as a man who is yet to come to terms with how his life is unfolding. He delivers a performance of restrain. While more layers would've added to Roshni's storyline, Asha Negi does a decent job with what she's offered. However, it's Surveen Chawla, who emerges as the star of the show, alongside Tripathi. Her character gives her ample scope to dig deep and an edge that she ably laps up.

For a series in its fourth season, the template of a courtroom drama mixed with police investigation could have fallen flat or felt repetitive. But to the makers' credit, the freshness remains, and so does the curiosity. There are several moments in the show when you would think you know who the killer is, but a little detail would pivot the plot just then. Well, if that's not the beauty of a well-crafted whodunnit, then what is?

Criminal Justice Season 4: A Family Matter is streaming on Jio Hotstar.