Cinemaah

Winning Case

It’s not very often that the Hindi film industry is able to produce a film that is entertaining and meaningful in its own fairytale way. Subash Kapoor’s Jolly LLB had a struggling lawyer take on the rich and powerful. In Part 2, the character of the struggling lawyer is played by Akshay Kumar, which ups the ante a bit. He may not be doing any action, but a star needs a bigger set of obstacles to overcome.

The film is set in Lucknow, where Jagdishwar Mishra Aka Jolly, is the fifteenth assistant of a prominent lawyer, who is made to do menial jobs and never allowed to forget that his father was a clerk in the same office. In his hurry to get his own chambers and go independent, he deceives a client and is left guilt ridden by the tragedy that follows.

He decides to go on a pursuit of justice to bring to book the cop Suryaveer Singh (Kumud Mishra), who killed an innocent man in a fake encounter.  In court he is up against an arrogant and influential lawyer Pramod Mathur (Annu Kapoor--brilliant), whose assistant’s job is to produce a rate card and even bill the client for the tea, biscuits and fan!

Suryaveer Singh’s corruption has also made him almost invincible, which Jolly realizes when he is shot at in a crowded market. That makes him go after the entire corrupt force with a tenacity his enemies did not expect. He meets his match in court—Mathur is experienced, clever and not at all hampered by scruples. The scenes of the trial, like a fight to the finish between Jolly and Mathur, are greatly enlivened by Saurabh Shukla (who won a National Award for the first film) returning as Judge Sunderlal Tripathy, with more quirks than anyone can count. He knows he is called Teddy Bear behind his back, but behind the eccentric behavior and rotund appearance is a man who respects law and makes no compromises.

The film is serious in purpose but has a lot of humour to make the bitter pill go down. The UP ambience and language is perfectly created and the dialogue is sharply witty. There are some implausible script contrivances, and needless songs, but these can be overlooked, because the film does not have any dull moments.

Kapoor has the ability to move and amuse the audience at the same time, which makes Jolly LLB2 such a satisfying watch. In his new ‘serious actor’ avatar, Akshay Kumar excels and effortlessly does the henpecked husband (to Huma Qureshi’s Gucci-craving Pushpa) as well as the committed lawyer role well. His performance is aided and enhanced by the wonderful supporting actors—theatre has obviously become a big hunting ground for talent scouts.