Streaming Smart: The Defence Rests
"Myself Madhav Mishra, LLB, Gold Medalist." How many actors can carry off that introduction and the subsequent characteristics season upon season? In an industry where repetition is the curse of success, Pankaj Tripathi has sometimes tended to seem like an actor stuck permanently in Groundhog Day. Yet, here he is, in Season 4 as the defence lawyer whose superpower is his empathy winning against smarter, better educated and more privileged lawyers. There is a refreshing lack of some mannerisms that have tended to dominate his acting of late, and that allows viewers to reconnect with his beloved Mishra, strict teacher, loving husband, never-say- die lawyer, and all round upstanding citizen. Here he is again to remind us gently of the simple values of honesty and hard work we have largely forgotten. What is at stake this time is another privileged family, whose lives seem to be perfect. There is a well-known surgeon, living next door to his soon to be ex-wife while carrying on with his former nurse who is now his daughter's caregiver. The daughter suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and needs constant supervision. The lack of care for the caregiver, the asymmetry in a relationship when one member earns more than the other, the possible manipulation of the judicial system. It's all here, wrapped up in Madhav Mishra's homilies and discoveries.