The first ‘Jolly’ Film was a treat on many counts. Arshad Warsi and Saurabh Shukla sparring in the courtroom left us in splits. In the next not-so-jolly ‘Jolly’ film, Akshay headlined the cast instead of Warsi, which was not such a bad thing. But it wasn’t such a good thing either, considering how Warsi owned the first film in the judicial franchise.
In the third film, Warsi and Kumar are thrown together in a fish-and-chips combo. It almost feels like a man’s third wedding where his wives from the last two marriages are invited just for the invitees to get entertained.
There is nothing wildly entertaining or inviting about Jolly LLB 3. By now, director Subhash Kapoor knows his legal ground well enough to plough through it confidently enough to reap a rewarding, if not rich, harvest.
Subhash Kapoor’s writing lacks the spark-in-the-dark, which made the first Jolly jab a mirror, a true mirror of the loopholes in the judiciary, which allow the rich to get away with murder.
This time, the courtroom drama seems rigged for jokes and laughter. While enjoying the fun, I could almost feel the bullet points in the script marked, ‘Laughter here’. Satirical spontaneity is not a strong point in our moving arts, as this week’s talked-about series, The Bastards Of Bollywood, amply illustrates.
Jolly LLB 3 is markedly more mirthful than The Bastards Of Bollywood, though not enough so to designate it as a worthy sequel to a sequel. Both Arshad and Akshay are equipped with enough comic virtuosity to make the limp loops look alert and funny.
However, a close scrutiny of the courtroom comicality reveals the planted hilarity. We can almost hear the prompting canned laughter in this sitcom-styled feature film. The narrative is inconsistent in its ‘scales’ pitch: some portions will tickle the funnybone, others… well, not so much. There is more comic meat post-midpoint, but not enough to make us applaud in approval.
Jolly LLB 3 is not an all-out disengaging dissing zone. Nothing for which you might want to take the makers to court for psychological abuse. But the freshness, cheekiness, and satirical swipes of the first film have been progressively diluted.
What ails the legal system in our country? We could go on and on about that, and still not be anywhere close to solving the conundrum of legalese. Subhash Kapoor seeks to examine the loopholes in the legal system. But the voice of the common man is no longer heard in the din of box office anxiety.
Thankfully, some factors remain uncompromised. Like Saurabh Shukla as the presiding judge. Still the scene-stealer.
