Jolly LLB Review

It is John Grisham meets Henry Cecil. More Grisham than Cecil. Subash Kapoor makes it to the group young promising film makers. It is nice to see a satire without lampooning, a criticism that des not trivialise and a narration that does not insult your intelligence. Technical error, not withstanding (artistic license if you may please!!) the film delivers. More importantly than the films, the actors performs.
Jagdish Tyagi alias Jolly (Arshad Warsi) is a small time no success lawyer in Meerut. He fails to get bail even after serving ladoos in court to celebrate the Judge’s (Vibha Chibbar) birthday. In love with the local school teacher Sandhya (Amrita Rao) he is part frustrated and part ambitious and finally decides to move to New Delhi where he has Jijaji Pratap (Manoj Pahwa). Successful and arrogant Tejender Rajpal (Boman Irani) has just got an acquittal for the spoilt lad of a rich business family headed by Mohan Agashe in a hit and run case which leaves five dead. The obvious reference is to the BMW hit and run case of Sanjeev Nanda!! The observant Jolly notices that there were no witnesses to the case and thus the acquittal.
On the road to popularity and success that does not come for an asking for a struggling lawyer, Jolly decides to press ingenuity into service and files a PIL even though he would not know how to spell ‘affidavit’ and seeks prostitution instead of prosecution while typing it in his old rusty typewriter. Every one knows that he is going to be no match on the suave and successful Tejender Rajpal. The later assures the business house that nothing is going to happen. Next the scene shifts to the court room and the drama unfolds. Never mind a PIL in a district court!! never mind the counsel once in bands once not and the other always in a suit!! These details don’t matter and don’t really rob the narration of the punch. The tight drama flirts out of the script every time the Director feels the need for telling us of the romance between Jolly and Sandhya and once makes an absolutely unnecessary excursion to an item-song.
The court drama is backed up by some on the street research by the struggling lawyer (straight from Grisham), the court scenes show some real tongue –in –cheek takes at the system (Henry Cecil). The finale is about whether the guilty is punished (No marks for guessing that!!).
The film is held together by an honest script and some brilliant performances. Not mounted on a high pedestal on even great sets, the film also makes a statement that law and law courts is also about dingy halls lacking in proper facilities and lawyers finding it difficult to make ends meet. Arshad Warsi is back to where he belongs. After a disastrous outing iin Zilla Ghaziabad, he is far more in his element in Meerut and New Delhi playing the struggling lawyer with a conscience that is battling between what is right and what is convenient. Boman Irani as the affluent and arrogant advocate is top of the rack. One of the most compelling performances in recent times. He brings a near Balraj Sahani class to the role and that is a huge compliment to any actor. This guy, who gave that wonderful performance last year in Shirin Farhan Ki… which went unnoticed, screams for attention this time again. And finally the film belongs to Saurabh Shukla as the judge. The talented actor who is often reduced to caricatured roles is brilliant. Do yourself a favour and watch the film for relishing this unadulterated performance. Rarely is something done by a character actor with such finesse and even rarer is he given the space and attention in our cinema. Jolly LLB is Jolly stuff!!
L. Ravichander.