If you have watched Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors, there is one character that would have stayed back with you. That character is none other than Sudha, the prisoner with self-harming tendencies.
Sudha was a character you don’t want to be around but still, when you get to know her, you sympathize with her. Even though you don’t want to go anywhere near that negativity, you still want to take the risk and pull her out of it. Because the world that she has created for herself, you wouldn’t want anyone to live there.
According to me, Sudha was one of the most difficult characters to play in Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors. From being cringy, someone who forces you to think that just in case, you get involved in such a situation in life, one person you would want to stay away from is Sudha, to becoming the only person around you actually wouldn’t mind being friends with. Making the audience change their views about the character without the person having to change much of her body language and mannerisms is undoubtedly clever writing, but if Nisha Dhar wouldn’t have lived up to the clever writing and complement it with her performance, then that well-crafted character would have been a complete waste.
What made the character feel so real was the constant ‘emptiness.’ Whether she is talking to someone, just sitting with a blade, or putting her son to sleep, she carried that emptiness with her throughout the series. May it be with her eyes, dialogue delivery, or body language, she spoke of nothingness. And that is what she brought to the character, that is what added intensity and depth to Sudha. That is what made Sudha scary, cringy, and at the same time, a prisoner of her circumstances and her own mind. All of it was very well portrayed by Nisha.
To conclude this post, I will repeat what I said about Nisha Dhar in my Criminal Justice season 2 review:
I am afraid she would go unnoticed because she simply looked her character. When an actor plays such a small but significant part so convincingly, when the actor becomes the character, you forget its significance.
How I wish Nisha gets more such amazing roles in the future where she gets to show the world her outstanding acting skills.