Movie Review - Jolly LLB 2 by Suhel Johar

Jolly LLB 2 May Not Be Perfect But It certainly Is A Gripping Film.

Written and directed by Subhash Kapoor, The State vs Jolly LL.B 2 or commonly known as simply Jolly LLB 2 is a black comedy film. A sequel to the 2013 film Jolly LLB, the film stars Akshay Kumar as the main protagonist instead of Arshad Warsi who was the protagonist in the original. 

A satirical courtroom drama that comments on the Indian legal system as a whole and the effect that the judicial system has on the common man. “Jolly LLB 2” tells the story of an awkward lawyer played by Akshay Kumar, who takes on a high-profile case in a satirical look at the legal system. 

Although the film was cleared with no cuts by the Central Board of Film Certification board. Advocate Ajaykumar Waghmare had filed a case at the Bombay High Court for removal of certain scenes that allegedly poked fun at lawyers. Waghmare had also demanded removal of the word LLB from the film’s title stating that the use of the word was a "deliberate attempt" to insult the Indian legal system. The Bombay High Court reviewed the film and demanded that four scenes be deleted from the film. After initially asking the Supreme Court to over-rule that decision, the film's producer, Fox Studios, later changed its mind and agreed to accept the cuts ordered by the High Court so that the film's release was not jeopardised.

The story of the film goes like this Jagadishwar Mishra alias ‘Jolly’, who works as an assistant in a reputed legal firm headed by renowned lawyer Rizvi saab (Ram Gopal Bajaj), keeps on dreaming about breaking free from the ‘clutches’ of his boss and go independent. In an attempt to realise his dream, Jolly ends up cheating a helpless and pregnant Hina Siddiqui (Sayani Gupta), whose husband was killed in a fake encounter. When Hina realizes that she had got cheated by Jolly, she commits suicide. The news of Hina’s suicide disturbs Jolly immensely that he starts getting nigtmares about her. As repentance, Jolly decides to take up the case for which Hina had given up her life. No sooner Jolly decides to take up the case, he is faced with strong opposition in the form of a very senior street smart lawyer Pramod Mathur (Annu Kapoor), who represents the case on behalf of his client, the infamous encounter specialist police Inspector Suryaveer Singh (Kumud Mishra). Sunderlal Tripathi (Saurabh Shukla) is the chosen one to deliver judgement in the case. When the world turns totally against Jolly, the one person who stands by him is his wife Pushpa Pandey (Huma Qureshi).  Really wonder how can his wife be a Pandey when he is a Mishra and he is actually referred to as Pushpa Pandey by none other than her hubby Jagadishwar Mishra.Strong as Jolly, maybe to the outside world at home he is the hen-pecked husband of Pushpa, who even cooks food and makes chapattis for his wife. Pushpa loves whisky, Gucci dresses and her chubby son in that order but she does stand behind him like a pillar.
 

With undying support from his wife and a little help from his ex boss Rizvi, Jolly single handedly manages to win the case of the late Hina Siddiqui and deliver justice to her family. The film, in totality, is quite impressive as it goes on to expose the harsh truth of today’s law and order. Jolly LLB, the prequel dealt with a hit-and-run case while Jolly LLB 2, the sequel deals with the case of mistaken identity of a J & K terrorist. What is noteworthy about the film is that the film does not carry any baggage from its predecessor and manages to carve its own niche.

 

The plot has enough LOL moments and situations to appeal to the funny bones of its audience. Besides making people laugh the film also manages to connect with the audience on an emotional level. But what does take away a bit from the film is its slack editing and the forced songs in the film. The background score is not any better.
 

Up against a group of cynical cops and a legal system vulnerable to manipulation, Jolly has to summon up all his courage and charm to find his way around the frightening mess that he finds himself in. Jolly does speak of, and even demonstrate, his physical prowess once or twice, but it is his tough cookie wife Pushpa who has to jump to his rescue when he is shot at by two assailants in a marketplace. Unfortunately, Huma Qureshi's character is half baked and does not realize the full potential of her character.
 

Director Subhash Kapoor has kept the courtroom drama scenes and the state of the Indian judicial system as realistic as possible, without resorting to any kind of glorification of any of these aspects.
 

Courtroom scenes are well written. The portrayal of Indian judiciary and mainly how things progress in lower courts is quite rightly done here. Infact Kapoor’s sharp dialogue towards the end on the statistics of pending cases and lawyers in India is appalling. The weighty arguments between Kumar and Kapoor do educate and entertain to some degree. But there are portions that seem contrived.  If only the film editing was crisper, its middle portions might have been a little less dreary to watch. The climax seems slightly stretched and especially a forced emotional drama involving Mathur’s character is boring.
 

Subhash Kapoor, who is credited with story, direction and screenplay, once again succeeds in making a film that hits the right notes with a mix of light moments and hard hitting realism. His story is spot on and laden with powerful dialogues. Kapoor also manages to subtly  touch upon the aspects like crime, terrorism, religion, society, actual courtroom drama, present judicial system, human emotions and sentiments in its raw form, without resorting to any kind of gimmickry.
 

As for the performances, the first half of the film is an Akshay Kumar show and he is in his elements. Ofcourse he has a role that is author backed that could have had any actor feel proud to enact the role. But to his credit Akshay stays within the character and has done full justice to his role. The second half of the film sees a whole lot of Annu Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla too, who, alongwith Akshay Kumar hold the film in a big way. Annu Kapoor is brilliant in the role of a corrupt lawyer.  Saurabh Shukla, on the other hand, is outstanding and comes up with the best performance in the film. So performancewise one can say that Jolly LLB 2 is as much Saurabh Shukla's and Annu Kapoor's film as it is Akshay Kumar's.
 

Huma Qureshi does a decent job. Sayani Gupta has a power packed cameo. Kumud Mishra as the ambitious, cynical police inspector who will stop at nothing for a promotion does more than justice to his character. Inaam Ul Haque has a small cameo of a terrorist who changes his religion that turns out to be an interesting twist. Rajiv Gupta as Jolly's assistant Birbal is good.
 

On the whole, Jolly LLB 2 is VFM film that is able to entertain and drives its point home.