JOLLY LLB (2013) - HINDI

The plight of the poor and also of the Indian Judicial System is well encapsulated in a courtroom drama. Wish, it was less of uncalled embellishments and more of worthy content.

Sure, this film has a heart in the right place, yet it misses the right beats. The urge for the subject was more than what was shown. Songs and dances, were just placed to provide disgust instead of respite. Who would like a breather in a tense drama, as an aficionado, one would love to delve more into the pulsating drama that raises the pitch. But, instead it comes with pusillanimous acts of the romance between our protagonist Jolly and his so-shown lover Sandhya (played by Amrita Rao). 

After looking at Amrita Rao for a few scenes, I realised, why is she still struggling to be mainstream actress, coz she cannot act fluently. She is not as fluid in front of the camera as her counterparts or even as fluid as youngsters, who are more assiduous than her, sure her acting did show up how lethargic she was in her preparation. Having said that, Jolly (Arshad Warsi) and Rajpal (Boman Irani) have fought well a case to outsmart each other not just for the case, but for their acting prowess which we have been acquainted well with in the recent times. But, amidst all these was a gem called Saurabh Shukla who brought to life, every scene, Even a mundane lunch scene of the judge having his lunch was delicious by the burps of this good actor. He made his presence of screen so very infectious that it was very hard for me not to fall for the laughs he generated even being extremely serious.

There is one good rule for making a good drama and that is stick to the point, stick to subject and the protagonist and that will surely come a winner. Look at a movie called "A Wednesday" or even "Udaan" which were devoid of a heroine per-say and all those song dance sequences which for a good amount of time, have ruined the subjects, just by coming on screen when absolutely unnecessary. The director Subhash Kapoor does repeat this grave mistake and that's one of the prime reason for me not liking it much. 

This is not a film that has extremely great production values where in each scene or frame is superb. This is a very mediocre budget film that has its own trappings and was given a limited release considering the worries of the distributors, who have their own apprehensions. In this case, I am upset even about the editor who should have reprimanded the director about the unnecessary flings but the editor did not do so. 

The things that are not in favour, have been told, now what works for this film is a realistic setup that is believable and the three principal performances. The dialogues for good part are memorable, referenced to the plight of our system and the poverty stricken, under-privileged people. 

I would give a 3/5 for a movie that is watchable but having said that, my crib is it could have been so better had it struck to the point instead of digressing to make this a popcorn flick.