Jolly LLB is far from being a stereotypical Hindi comedy, yes it does have it's fair share of intentional goof ups; like appeal being spelt as 'apple' and prosecution being misspelled as 'prostitution' thanks to the educational and vocational back ground of lawyer Jagdish Tyagi aka "Jolly".........
Hailing from the small town from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and equipped with a law degree from the law college in the same city, Jolly (Arshad Warsi) constantly nurses fond dreams of making it big and enjoying more than his fifteen seconds of name and fame in the media spotlight, all he needs is that one elusive case that will make him a household name........
Jolly's office is nothing more than a humble ramshackle desk under the blue skies and his love interest Amrita Rao (a modern day sprightly and opinionated school marm), his sounding board and conscience keeper all rolled into one; Jolly keeps stumbling from one disaster to the other until the "big case' that he has so earnestly awaited falls into his lap like a bolt from the blue.......
Enter super successful lawyer and Jolly's idol (?) Tejinder Rajpal (Boman Irani) who is not averse to twisting and manipulating the law as long as he gets his guilty as sin client whose land cruiser has cruelly run over six homeless peasants off the hook literally by hook or by crook........
Lo and behold, an eyewitness appears seemingly out of thin air, Jolly files a Public Interest Litigation and like they say, the rest is history; his bumbling personage, inadvertent ability to end up putting his foot in his mouth more often than not and penchant for rubbing the trial court judge adroitly played by Saurabh Shukla ever so often not only makes his personage believable, but oh so likeable and lovable......
The film does tend to meander somewhat in the first half, but the second half is a director's dream; what with it's electrifying pace, crackling chemistry between the leading protagonists and the underlying conflict between the courage of convictions and making a mickey of the law.........
Jolly works because it holds out the hope that the common man can triumph against seemingly insurmountable odds, machinations, evil designs, manipulations and money power as long as believes in decency, courage of convictions, ideals and the dictum that the truth always triumphs come what may..........
A resounding two thumbs up to this thought provoking caper that certainly has it's heart, soul and a lot more besides in the right place, welcome back Arshad Warsi, Jolly is certainly your most memorable character after 'Circuit' and 'Babban', credit is also due to Boman Irani for not reducing his evil character to a caricature and making it believable and oh so roguish.........
The advent of directors like Abhishek Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Bijoy Nambiar, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Subhash Kapoor and a few others does certainly augur well fot the future, these directors are making films that they believe in, cinema that is believable, tells a story, narrates the tale of the triumph of the common man and his dreams and most importantly makes us believe that the aam aadmi can certainly 'win' as long as he does not compromise with his ideals, beliefs and take alluring short cuts vis a vis the long and arduous path of truth and ultimate triumph........
Rating: 4/5.........Duration: 2 hours 10 minutes......
A word of caution will certainly not be remiss, this movie might not prove to be your cup of tea unless you are fond of courtroom dramas or sagas with a moral twist and dose of earthy wisdom.........
Hailing from the small town from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and equipped with a law degree from the law college in the same city, Jolly (Arshad Warsi) constantly nurses fond dreams of making it big and enjoying more than his fifteen seconds of name and fame in the media spotlight, all he needs is that one elusive case that will make him a household name........
Jolly's office is nothing more than a humble ramshackle desk under the blue skies and his love interest Amrita Rao (a modern day sprightly and opinionated school marm), his sounding board and conscience keeper all rolled into one; Jolly keeps stumbling from one disaster to the other until the "big case' that he has so earnestly awaited falls into his lap like a bolt from the blue.......
Enter super successful lawyer and Jolly's idol (?) Tejinder Rajpal (Boman Irani) who is not averse to twisting and manipulating the law as long as he gets his guilty as sin client whose land cruiser has cruelly run over six homeless peasants off the hook literally by hook or by crook........
Lo and behold, an eyewitness appears seemingly out of thin air, Jolly files a Public Interest Litigation and like they say, the rest is history; his bumbling personage, inadvertent ability to end up putting his foot in his mouth more often than not and penchant for rubbing the trial court judge adroitly played by Saurabh Shukla ever so often not only makes his personage believable, but oh so likeable and lovable......
The film does tend to meander somewhat in the first half, but the second half is a director's dream; what with it's electrifying pace, crackling chemistry between the leading protagonists and the underlying conflict between the courage of convictions and making a mickey of the law.........
Jolly works because it holds out the hope that the common man can triumph against seemingly insurmountable odds, machinations, evil designs, manipulations and money power as long as believes in decency, courage of convictions, ideals and the dictum that the truth always triumphs come what may..........
A resounding two thumbs up to this thought provoking caper that certainly has it's heart, soul and a lot more besides in the right place, welcome back Arshad Warsi, Jolly is certainly your most memorable character after 'Circuit' and 'Babban', credit is also due to Boman Irani for not reducing his evil character to a caricature and making it believable and oh so roguish.........
The advent of directors like Abhishek Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Bijoy Nambiar, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Subhash Kapoor and a few others does certainly augur well fot the future, these directors are making films that they believe in, cinema that is believable, tells a story, narrates the tale of the triumph of the common man and his dreams and most importantly makes us believe that the aam aadmi can certainly 'win' as long as he does not compromise with his ideals, beliefs and take alluring short cuts vis a vis the long and arduous path of truth and ultimate triumph........
Rating: 4/5.........Duration: 2 hours 10 minutes......
A word of caution will certainly not be remiss, this movie might not prove to be your cup of tea unless you are fond of courtroom dramas or sagas with a moral twist and dose of earthy wisdom.........
No comments:
Post a Comment