GOLD STANDARD

Films to web series, Kirti Kulhari is headlining a generation of artistes who are rewriting the rules. With a career that continues to be full of unconventional roles and nuanced performances, she is, in more ways than one, like gold dust, finds Nupur Sarvaiya

- Sonia Ullah

Criminal Justice: Behind The Doors, the much-acclaimed Hindi-language legal drama web series, opens with lawyer Bikram Chandra getting intimate with his wife Anuradha, beautifully essayed by Kirti Kulhari. The aesthetically-shot mise en scène gives you the conviction of connubial bliss between the couple. That is, until the plot soon fires up and she stabs him, descending a dread and awakening an unease that trembles throughout this series. Kulhari here, like many other noir heroines, is apathetic after murdering her husband. It’s after you fully watch the protagonist through the eight episodes, she’s the victim of domestic horrors. “It has been the most intense, challenging role I have played till date. But it’s also the most satisfying one as an actor. I was very drawn to the show because it’s time we spoke about issues such as emotional abuse and marital rape. I met with psychiatrists to understand their perspectives about such cases. There was so much learning about people and their complexities,” she shares about the leg-work that went behind putting on her stellar performance.