Back in 1979, Al Pacino teamed up with Norman Jewison to make "¦And Justice for All, a film that wanted to have it both ways by being a legal drama and a legal comedy. Despite all pretences of satirical social relevance, the film fell flat. So it goes with Jolly LLB, a new Hindi low-budget comedy drama about a lawyer who takes on an impossible case and is caught in the eternal eddies of postponements and kickbacks that is the New Delhi legal system.
Amazingly, the film pulls some powerful moments out of a very shabby hat
Arshad Warsi plays Jagdish aka 'Jolly’ Tyagi, a rural lawyer who has from long admired the legal dexterity of superstar advocate Rajpal (Boman Irani). Jolly is such a fan he even complements the legal wizard after his coup of overturning the conviction of a rich kid who drunkenly drove over six homeless people sleeping on New Delhi’s footpaths.
There’s also an energetic wedding dance number and some very lame jokes that create a pervasive uncertainty as to whether this movie is a comedy or not. But just before the intermission (the movie is only just over two hours, but Hindi cinema just can’t get intervals out of its system!), the film begins to take itself seriously and offers a real sense of drama: Tyagi’s new bride, Sandhya (Amrita Rao) voices her disappointment with her husband’s self-centred professional and financial ambitions, and even Tyagi gets disillusioned with his legal hero, the Indian legal system and his own willingness to participate in the corrupt system. With his wife set to leave him and his world falling about his ears, the stage is finally set for an interesting scenario as our hero has to best his legal idol in court.
Admittedly, even after the choc-top break, there are some still some awkward moments. Both Irani and Saurabh Shukla, who plays the case’s judge, often seem unsure as to whether they should play their roles straight or not. But even then, the second half of Jolly LLB transcends script and budgetary limitations as well as the film’s rather schizophrenic approach to performance. Amazingly, the film pulls some powerful moments out of a very shabby hat.
Then as a curtain call, writer/director Subhash Kapoor stages a Om Shanti Om-styled credit roll accompaniment as the film’s principal actors Warsi, Irani and a much more glam, Rao march down the red carpet to a nightclub beat and act out some kind of silly comedy dance-off. This last five minutes is the only time in the film’s 126-minute length that a sense of fun actually succeeds. This add-on sequence is the source of all the film’s PR materials.
But if you’ve paid your money and you’re watching the credits roll, it’s far too late for the filmmakers to try and curry the favour of those expecting a trivial Bollywood comedy. The ill-fitted nature of the film’s limp comical jibes, and this odd finale, suggest Kapoor (and his producers) may have deliberately toned down the strong material for fear of retribution (the film’s central court case allegedly resembles a scandal that involved a famous Hindi actor) and to provide an 'just kidding’ alibi that Jolly LLB is all a joke. If so, they’re not fooling anyone but themselves.
