Subhash K Jha takes another look at Jolly LLB2 as it hits 8 years since it released. Plus, we hear from star Akshay Kumar about the film in a throwback interview
Whether played by Arshad Warsi or Akshay Kumar, the small-town lawyer’s socio-political awakening is heartwarming, to say the least. While Jolly LLB 2 is suffused with a swarming, all-pervasive social conscience that ribs our guilt-ridden middle-class values and elbows our cynicism and slothfulness out of our range of activity, it suffers from a sense of overweening ambition.
Everything here is much larger than Jolly LLB, the 2013 sleeper hit about a lazy lawyer played with judicious jocosity by Arshad Warsi, who takes on a cause-celebre that turns him into a responsible citizen. Arshad’s Jolly made us cheer for his growth into conscientiousness.
Again, writer-director Subhash Kapoor has his heart and conscience in the right place. Akshay Kumar’s sincerity shines through many of the film’s clumsy episodes (like the one where he is shot at and saved by his wife). The first half builds up Akshay Kumar’s Jagdishwar Mishra URF Jolly’s lackadaisical attitude to his profession with a surehandedness that keeps the bustling uncertainties of Lucknow moving smoothly.
A traffic jam sets in mid-way when the proceedings move into a dingy, overcrowded courtroom where a big political case of an encounter must be argued out to the bitter end, leaving everyone, including the judge, lawyers, witnesses, and of course, us the audience, thoroughly exhausted and a tad disappointed.
The melodramatic court proceedings include the Judge and lawyer doing a dharna in the middle of the session. This is not contempt. It is something else. Something far more wearying.
Also—and this point must be noted carefully, Your Honour—Akshay Kumar lets down the courtroom drama in the second half. While he is brilliant in putting forward a case for his character’s ambitious downfall in the initial passages of the well-written, if slightly over-cluttered, screenplay, he is inadequate in his moral righteousness and outperformed by practically the entire cast in the courtroom.
Indeed, the most gripping sliver of screenplay in this admirable though uneven morality tale of justice delayed though not denied involves a pregnant widow, Hina, played by Saiyani Gupta, whose husband is killed by cops in a fake encounter. Gupta brings a sense of unmitigated anxiety and grief to her part. She feels for her character. She is the voice of our collective conscience.
This brings us to the motley crew of majestic performances. Barring Huma Qureshi, who is disastrously awful as Akshay Kumar’s drinking designer-wearing wife, every actor gives his or her best shot to the film. Saurabh Shukla, who was an absolute scene-stealer in the first Jolly film, remarkably reboots his part as the huffing and puffing judge whose indifferent attitude in the court hides a steely determination. Shukla’s Judge has a life outside the courtroom. He loves Bollywood cinema, adores Alia Bhatt, and insists he will dance to Alia’s Gulabo at his daughter’s wedding.
Can we ever dislike this man?
Annu Kapoor, as the posh lawyer fighting against Akshay Kumar, is delightfully strong in projecting arrogant power, as is the ever-reliable Kumud Mishra as a corrupt killer-cop. Rajiv Gupta, as Akshay Kumar’s assistant, compels you to keep looking at him every time he is in the corner of a frame looking nervous, fidgety, or plain confused.
As for Ms Qureshi, did she walk onto the wrong set? Which movie is she supposed to be in?
While I marveled at the grand gallery of performing maestros who imbue an honourable heft to the lopsided courtroom drama, I missed the antidote to the ennui that is bound to set into any courtroom proceedings that wants to prod our sense of propriety awake with homilies and cynicism harnessed into a broad-based concluding moral sermon from Judge Saurav Shukla on how over-worked our courts are.
Amen to that. As for the film’s big message on Kashmir and militancy, I felt Jolly had taken on more than he could handle. Blessedly, I didn’t feel the same about the film’s director. Subhash Kapoor pulls off an acerbic and arresting film on the loopholes in our legal system with an inner strength of conviction that carries us through some plodding passages of legalese.
Akshay Kumar must be applauded for selecting films that go beyond entertainment without losing their entertainment value. There are sequences here, such as the one where Hina confronts the errant Jolly in front of his wife and father, and the sequence where Jolly’s hostile mentor comes to his rescue, which are evidence of tremendous writing skill.
If only Jolly LLB 2 didn’t fumble at crucial plot points. Awkwardness sits on the proceedings.
Akshay Kumar, who played a lawyer in Subhash Kapoor’s Jolly LLB2, was concerned about the loopholes in our legal system. “I think there is a need for quicker judgments. Cases in our country go on forever; at times, the person in question is no more, but the case is still pending; that’s rather unfortunate and definitely should change.”
The star-actor feels people with a voice that matters, must speak up against social injustices. “I do believe that as actors we have certain leverage as our voices are heard sometimes clearer than some politicians through the power we possess on our social media platforms. But with that power comes great responsibilities.”
He feels the legal process needs to be swifter and stronger. “I don’t think it matters whether you’re a big or little guy. It takes more than an actor to change a criminal’s mind, and hence, it’s the judicial system that needs to be stronger than the people.”
Akshay cites examples of countries where laws are harsh and swift. “Take Singapore, for example; criminals are literally scared to exist out there; their prisons are empty because the price to pay for criminal behavior is horrendous.”
He feels we must strengthen the arms of the law and the shoulders of our soldiers for our country to be safe. “The legal system and the armed forces are what keeps their country running so beautifully… It can be done.”
Akshay also praised the Government and the Prime Minister for the much-damnified and demonized demonetization scheme: “I can’t sit here and complain about the legal system one minute and then complain about one of the most powerful political actions ever undertaken in India just because it was inconvenient. It is a shame so many people were affected, but it’s a step our country needed to take.”
Exulting in the role of a lazy unscrupulous lawyer he said, “Playing Jolly is one of my favourite experiences in entire my ‘acting career’, no hang-ups, no researching, just listening and learning from my director Subhash Kapoor and creating the perfect Lucknowi lawyer.”
Akshay said he loved putting forward challenges for himself. “I love a mental challenge as well as a physical one; I remember earlier on in my career when I just used to be all brute and no acting, this film, I was all acting and no brute force whatsoever; I was just the character through and through…as best conceived by my director.”
Playing a character from a non-metropolitan city was a big high for Akshay. “Life in a metro is just like chasing someone else’s dream, whereas life in rural India is where people are what people are. They love their lives; they’re proud Indians with their hearts on their sleeves and their tongues out on display.”
Akshay prefers playing the ruralized role rather than the city slicker. “They are far more interesting characters to play than a city slicker, you can literally delve into the heart and soul of India by taking yourself outside of Mumbai and remembering what India was once all about, Communities, not Societies!!!”
