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Release
date:
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July 26, 2019
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Director:
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Prakash Kovelmudi
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Cast:
Language:
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Kangana Ranaut,
Rajkummar Rao, Amyra Dastur, Amrita Puri, Hussain Dalal, Satish Kaushik,
Brijendra Kala, Jimmy Sheirgill
Hindi
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What if roles were
reversed and instead of Raavan pursuing Sita in the Ramayan, she were to sense
his intentions in advance and go after him? The question is at the core of
director Prakash Kovelmudi’s Judgementall
Hai Kya which places a story of domestic abuse, the effect of violence
on a child’s psyche and mental illness against the backdrop of one of India’s
favourite epics.
It is an intriguing
concept, and for that, here is a hat tip to Kanika Dhillon who is credited with
the story, screenplay and dialogues. Comedy is a dominant element in her
writing of this
film, but it never crosses the Lakshman Rekha to
mock those with mental health issues – Kangana Ranaut’s Bobby Batliwala Grewal
is designed to evoke laughter, but never pity or contempt. Hat tip, again.
Dhillon’s words are comfortably ensconced
beside Kovelmudi’s trippy storytelling, and delightfully unfettered
performances by Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao that make the first half at least a compelling
watch.
Artistry and good
intentions abound here, and when the final scenes roll around, it becomes clear
that the goal of the film is to question prevailing notions of what constitutes
“normal” and “abnormal”. Unfortunately, the writer’s concern is not backed by
solid research, and despite everything it has going for it, Judgementall Hai Kya ends up adding to
rather than reducing prevailing confusions, misconceptions and stereotypes
about mental health in India. This also causes the writing to get murky and somewhat muddled in a second half that calls upon the viewer to join the
dots by tossing around medical terms like “acute psychosis” and “dissociative
identity disorder”.
When she was a little girl, Bobby witnessed her father repeatedly bashing up her mother. The trauma of a childhood tragedy has left deep scars that follow her into her adulthood. She
is a woman with many voices in her head.
Twenty years after
we met the child Bobby, the grown-up Bobby (Ranaut) is living alone, works as a
dubbing artist in films, and is kinda sorta dating a guy called Varun (Hussain
Dalal) when she meets Keshav (Rajkummar Rao) and Reema (Amyra Dastur). She is
drawn to Keshav but simultaneously suspicious of his attitude towards his wife,
and from there begins Sita’s pursuit of Raavan.
The performances
all round are phenomenal, well matched to the film’s intentionally hyperbolic
tone. Kovelmudi also succeeds in sustaining the air of intrigue he builds
around Bobby and Keshav. It does not quite add up in the second half though, which is when matters get slightly simplistic and
the screenplay does not quite tie up all its loose ends.
I spent an hour and
a half after last night’s preview interviewing a clinical psychologist because Judgementall Hai Kya traps us in a web
spun out of our own ignorance about “acute psychosis” and “dissociative
identity disorder” (DID). First, I learnt that “acute psychosis” is used
incorrectly here. Second, DID is chucked in as a red herring – who exactly has
it is left to us to conclude. There are two possibilities. At the point at
which DID is first mentioned, the film is clearly trying to steer us in the
direction of one particular character, but it turns out that that person does
not display any symptoms of DID as I now understand it from an expert. How on
earth is a layperson in the audience to know that though? Are we expected to
interview medical professionals after watching the film, or to have prior,
in-depth knowledge of such matters? If not, then should we conclude that mental
health is a mere gimmick for this team? Later, the film steers us towards
another character, but in retrospect I realise that it would not have made an
inch of a difference to the plot whether that person had DID or not, whether
that person was mentally unwell or not – everything that happened in the story
could have happened either way. A criminal does not have to be given the excuse of a mental
disorder to explain away their crimes – sometimes people do evil because evil
is what they are.
In fact, the constant association
of crime with the mentally ill in mass entertainment, not just in India but in
other countries too, contributes to the stigma and ignorance surrounding mental
illness. The world is full of regular folk like you and me grappling with
mental health concerns, but such people are rarely portrayed in cinema and on
TV. As it happens, Indian entertainers are among the worst offendors in this
arena. Judgementall Hai Kya seems to
mean well, but its limited understanding of mental health does not help
matters.
It is challenging
to say what needs to be said here without giving away spoilers, which is why those last two paragraphs will
perhaps be understood only by those who have
watched Judgementall Hai Kya. If you
have already seen the film, think about these issues. Ask yourself too
if the post-interval portion would have been possible at all if it weren’t for
those two purportedly conscientious policemen involved in a murder
investigation in the first half being uncharacteristically casual towards a
massive clue that placed the spotlight on one of the protagonists and would
have led them to the truth if they had cared enough to probe further. If you
have not yet seen the film, then know that Judgementall Hai Kya is based on an
interesting concept, it is often funny and fascinating, but in the ultimate
analysis, it does not make the grade.
Rating (out
of five stars): **1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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121 minutes
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This review has also been published on Firstpost:
Visuals courtesy:
