176: JOLLY LLB

Release date:	March 15, 2013
Director:	Subhash Kapoor
Cast: Language:	Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Amrita Rao, Saurabh Shukla, Mohan Agashe, Mohan Kapoor, Vibha Chhibber, Sanjai Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Chhaya, Ramesh Deo Hindi

Jolly LLB is no Munnabhai MBBS.

No seriously, it’s not! It’s surprising how many people have assumed that Jolly LLB is a Munnabhai wannabe, possibly because it contains a degree in the title, stars Munnabhai cast members Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani, and is directed by Subhash Kapoor who has bagged the next Munna project. Well, the commonalities end there. Jolly LLB is neither an out-and-out comedy like the two hugely successful Munnabhai films, nor does it have any pretensions to their scale and gloss. It’s the small, sweet, funny-yet-sad-and-moving, very believable story of struggling lawyer Jagdish Tyagi a.k.a. Jolly (Arshad Warsi) who shifts from Meerut to Delhi in search of greener pastures and greatness. In the Capital, Jolly meets hot-shot lawyer Rajpal (Boman Irani). When Jolly gets involved in the case of a millionaire drunk driver and some dead pavement dwellers, he is pitted against this Goliath of the legal community in one of the country’s most high-profile cases.

Courtroom dramas are rare in Bollywood and when legal proceedings do feature in Hindi films, they tend to be melodramatic and cliched, albeit in a wolf-whistle-worthy way. Jolly LLB is unusual for Bollywood because most of the action takes place in a court complex. And if you’ve ever been to Indian courts, you will agree that the District & Sessions Court in Jolly is far more credible than what we’re used to seeing in Hindi films. There is no speech-making here, except when the lawyers make their closing arguments. The formal language is missing, as is much of the infrastructure. Jolly can barely spell and is clearly not fully acquainted with all aspects of the law. Nor does he get to spout dialogues of the “tareekh pe tareekh” variety from Damini, designed to draw applause and cat calls. Yet when he does make his final address to the judge, it’s hard not to get teary-eyed because it all feels so darned real.

Much of this has to do with the writing and direction by Subhash Kapoor. Unlike his earlier film Phas Gaye Re Obama which petered out in the second half, Kapoor maintains a momentum throughout Jolly LLB. His characters, right down to the ones who barely get to speak, are interesting and memorable. The bigger point being made is about corruption in the Indian judiciary and police, but we’re also given a close look at the desolate conditions in which most lawyers function (in Jolly’s part of the world, even a chamber is a distant dream, and those who aspire to get there must secure their pathetic open-air ‘offices’ – table, chair, metal box – with lock and chain). The many asides in the court scenario in Jolly LLB are utterly, completely delightful (my favourite is the judge who sends off a love SMS just before a hearing begins). The humour is understated and effective (except in one scene where a constable auctions an SHO’s post, which starts out as rather amusing but then feels like it’s trying too hard, unlike the rest of the film). Kapoor is also not afraid to deliver to us a flawed hero whose initial motivation to take up the cause of the pavement dwellers is the potential media attention. What’s equally interesting is that it’s possible, just possible, that Jolly’s motivations remain unchanged even in the end though his methods change.

The always superb Arshad Warsi as Jolly switches between good, bad and gray, naïve and dogged with the consummate ease that only an actor of his calibre can achieve. Amrita Rao as his quietly firm and morally upright girlfriend Sandhya, and Boman Irani as the pompous, ruthless Rajpal are both equally remarkable in their roles. Other wonderful talents pop up to play cameos (including Marathi & Hindi veteran Ramesh Deo). But the highlight of the entire film is Saurabh Shukla’s Judge Tripathi … For too long has this actor been saddled with the same old gangster or cop roles where his physicality predominated his performances. Here in Jolly LLB he’s a slimy, smarmy chap yet it’s hard not to be drawn to this man of dubious integrity even when he farts and openly asks for a bribe and runs his courtroom like a personal fiefdom. Brilliant, Your Honour! Just brilliant!

There’s so much to praise in Jolly LLB that it feels bad to draw attention to the film’s failings which are, unfortunately, too major to be wished away. Warsi – wonderful actor though he is – seems to be playing a character about 20 years younger than his real-life age: can’t understand why some minor tweaking of the screenplay couldn’t have ironed out this problem. Ah well, this is such a common issue with Bollywood films that old habits could close our eyes to it. How, though, can we possibly pretend that we didn’t hear the film’s music? It’s bad enough that composer Krsna has churned out such mediocre melodies for Jolly LLB; what’s worse is that the songs pop up at the most inopportune moments, none more so than the David-versus-Goliath gung-ho number right at the end that almost kills the poignant mood the final courtroom scene leaves us with. If I’d been warned, I would have walked out the second the end credits started rolling. Still, Subhash Kapoor deserves to get off with a light sentence for those grouses … because in the overall analysis, Jolly LLB is a simple-though-layered, loveable film.

Rating (out of five): ***1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	U/A
Running time:	131 minutes

Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_LLB     

175: SAARE JAHAAN SE MEHNGA

Release date:	March 8, 2013
Director:	Anshul Sharma
Cast: Language:	Sanjai Mishra, Pragati Pandey, Vishwa Mohan Bhadola, Zakir Hussain, Ranjan Chhabra, Disha Pandey Hindi

Endearing concept, nice cast, lead characters that feel so real, the genuine atmosphere of a small town in a film set in a small town … there’s a lot going for Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga. Where the film falters and fizzles out is in its inability to go beyond an enjoyable first half or rise above a unique premise, to be a well-rounded satire. Still, while the going’s good it’s worth a watch.

Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga is set in Sonepat in Haryana, where Puttanpal and his wife struggle to make ends meet in the face of back-breaking inflation. He is a government-employed cattle breeder, she runs a beauty parlour in the house. Both incomes combined are not sufficient to keep the kitchen running in a household that also includes a forever-crabby old father and an unemployed younger brother. Matters take an interesting turn when Puttanpal arrives at an idea to beat inflation: he takes a 3-year interest-free loan under a new government scheme to start a shop, but uses the money instead to hoard much-needed household supplies for 3 years.

So far so good. It’s a joy to see comedian Sanjai Mishra being given a role that, for a change, does not require him to be an over-the-top laugh monger … this is a genuinely talented actor who has been repeating himself in some of his recent films, saddled as he has been with repetitive roles. Pragati Pandey (playing Puttanpal’s wife Noori) is unbelievably believable, and scenes of her with clients at Noori Beauty Parlour are among the best written in the film – hilarious and yet so poignant. The relationship of complete understanding between Puttanpal and Noori is very moving. Writers Rupesh Thapliyal and Vijay Manral are in fine fettle up to this point. Another evocative angle is added to the story in the form of Puttanpal’s father – played convincingly by Vishwa Mohan Bhadola – as the old man who fails to realise the pressure he’s placing on his son with his perennial cribbing. And actor Zakir Hussain as a loan inspector is his usual reliable self.

So why doesn’t the film work all the way? Well, firstly, Puttanpal and Noori may be simple, but they’re not stupid, yet it doesn’t occur to either of them (or any character in the film) to wonder how perishable food items are expected to last for 3 full years. Slight problem, no? Even if you do grant the writers this oversight, it’s hard to accept the lack of depth in the relationship between Gopal and his girlfriend Suman (Disha Pandey) and sadder still, the writers’ inability to come up with new ideas as the film rolls along. So okay, the pre-interval portion is fun and telling, but with nothing fresh coming up post interval it’s hard to swallow the over-dramatised final scene in which Puttanpal delivers a long long lecture about inflation and the film takes the populist stance of actually endorsing corruption among members of the public in response to corruption among the political class and inflation. Wonder how Victor Hugo would have wrapped up this story.

Producers Revel Films had earlier given us 2010’s Phas Gaye Re Obama, a tragi-comic comment on the global recession. That film suffered from the same weakness that plagues Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga: lovely concept, excellent execution at the start but a second half that feels stretched once the novelty wears off. SJSM is skating on even thinner ice. Whoever said “well begun is half done” forgot to add that half done still means another halfway to go, and Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga doesn’t manage that journey. This is a sweet film, but it should have been so much more.

Rating (out of five): **3/4

Photograph courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/SaareJahaanSeMehnga?fref=ts

174: SAHEB BIWI AUR GANGSTER RETURNS

Release date:	March 8, 2013
Director:	Tigmanshu Dhulia
Cast: Language:	Jimmy Sheirgill, Mahie Gill, Irrfan, Soha Ali Khan, Rajeev Gupta, Raj Babbar, Deepraj Rana, Pravesh Rana Hindi

At one point in Saheb Biwi aur Gangster Returns, a slimy politician tries desperately to switch off his laptop on which a porn film is loudly playing. Gasps and moans emanate from the screen as he struggles to turn off the film even as a journalist enters his office. Don’t look, the neta tells the bemused visitor... If ever there was a single scene that could encapsulate a writer-director’s skill, it is this. Rajeev Gupta as the politico is brilliant, so is Irrfan as the visitor. Nothing about this scene is over-stated which is what makes it even funnier than it might have been in exaggerated form. And in the deftness with which he delivers this understated hilarity, Tigmanshu Dhulia – SBAG Returns’ director and co-writer – proves yet again why he is one of the best talents of contemporary Bollywood.

And so Dhulia is back with Saheb (Jimmy Sheirgill), Biwi (Mahie Gill) and a new Gangster (Irrfan as Indrajeet Singh) in this delightful sequel to the engaging Saheb Biwi aur Gangster of 2011. SBAG Returns begins where the first film left off: Aditya Pratap Singh a.k.a. Saheb is the violence-prone, arrogant though cash-strapped scion of an erstwhile royal family in small-town India, turning to electoral politics in an effort to hold on to the power his ancestors once wielded. Following the developments of the first film, he is now confined to a wheelchair, struggling to cope with his disability and the awareness that his wife Madhavi Devi is not the pliable partner-in-crime or doormat he would have liked her to be. Madhavi is still an alcoholic, still emotionally unstable and still bitter about her husband’s wandering eye. That eye wanders in this film towards a rival raja’s daughter Ranjana (Soha Ali Khan) who happens to be the one true love of Indrajeet. Ranjana becomes a pawn in a power game between these rajas of yore whose political and personal battles get inextricably intertwined through the film.

Dhulia and editor Rahul Shrivastava sustain an absorbing pace almost throughout SBAG Returns, making this a highly entertaining watch. If Randeep Hooda was the pick of an excellent cast in Part 1, then here the honours go to Irrfan who makes evil attractive and manages to lend charm even to his awkward love making. About that love making though, it must be said that Soha seems to have considerable reservations about exposure and sexual explicitness, which becomes painfully evident in the bedroom encounter between Ranjana and Indrajeet. One of the pluses of SBAG1 was the gay abandon with which Mahie and Randeep threw themselves into their very wild sexcapades; neither the actors nor the camera were pussyfooting around the matter, thus giving us some of the most extensive and most tastefully torrid sex scenes ever seen in a Bollywood film. In SBAG Returns though, it’s Soha’s hesitation, not her character’s sexual reticence that we seem to see on screen in a very brief scene.

Jimmy and Rajeev Gupta deliver wonderful performances that make you yearn for more meaty roles for both actors in more films. Mahie too ably carries forward the chameleon-like transformations of Madhavi Devi from SBAG. If there is a weak link in this chain it’s the characterisation of Ranjana by the writers (story: Dhulia and Kamal Pandey; screenplay and dialogues: Dhulia) and Soha’s inadequate performance of this character. When she changes her goals so dramatically mid-stream, her motivations for doing so needed to go beyond the hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-scorned cliché to be convincing. (It was a challenge writing that sentence without spoilers; if it sounds obtuse now, do re-read it after you see the film.) Elsewhere there is some detailing that should have been taken care of. The very Anglicised Ranjana’s casualwear may have been acceptable to her father (Raj Babbar) but seems out of place in the home of her outrageously conservative, patriarchal beau. And in a song featuring Anjana Sukhani, in a scene featuring a miserable Ranjana, the editor throws in a long shot of a brightly smiling Ranjana dancing with her co-stars between shots of her morose face in the same group. Since Ranjana is crucial to the proceedings, none of this can be ignored ... so it’s a good thing that the film’s gripping momentum and crisp dialogues are designed to lull us into a forgiving mood.

Rakesh Ranjan’s sound design in SBAG Returns deserves a special mention. If you enter the hall knowing well that there’s a possibility of guns going off all around, yet find yourself (like I was) getting startled at every single bullet fired, you know the audiographer is doing everything right. Equally worth mentioning is the effective use of Sandeep Chowta’s background score to build up the tension in the film; the songs, on the other hand, are not up to the mark.

The decaying havelis, the remnants of grandeur in the formal costumes, the choice of locations all contribute to building up the ominous atmosphere of desperation in the lives of these former rajas. The many allusions to our current political scenario are just as enjoyable: like the state that’s on the verge of being split, not in the interests of the people but of the politicos who want that division; like the politician who wants his wife to be a mere front for him; like the Machiavellian moves before a crucial vote in a state assembly; the presence of a Raja Bhaiyya in the story; and of course, the porn-watching politician.

It’s such a joy to be able to say this in a Bollywood that rarely makes good sequels … Saheb Biwi aur Gangster was a fun political thriller; SBAG Returns is even better.

Rating (out of five): ***1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	A
Running time:	145 minutes

Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Me_Aur_Main    

Watch the trailer on Viacom18’s official youtube channel:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFyQTtD6BzM&list=PLFlTp4DOxUfNfq7CNWGEglB7SLGIH3b_6