Jolly LL.B., Overview: Bikaner to Boston, in racing cars, and two advocates riding camels

Jolly LL.B., Overview: Bikaner to Boston, in racing cars, and two advocates riding camels

Land acquisition, for building roads, bridges, residential and commercial buildings, factories and airports, are burning issues that have been making headlines in developing India for several decades now. These acquisitions are either by the government in power, or by companies that are owned by billionaires. In many cases, the government acquires the land, at a nominal price, only to hand it over to corporates, allegedly at peanut prices. In other cases, the corporates themselves manipulate the acquisitions, in cahoots with local government officials. Settlers and farmers, a majority of who are poor ‘adivasis’ (indigenous people or aboriginals), uneducated or semi-literate, who have been living and farming on that land for several hundred years, are suddenly uprooted, and their land grabbed. This deprives them of their only real wealth, causes erosion of forest and green cover, due to building activity, and mass migration of the hapless victims to strange places. Unable to face the take-over behemoth, some of them commit suicide. Sounds like an NGO’s rant, doesn’t it? Well, there is an NGO in the film, taking-up this cause, in Rajasthan’s Bikaner, and vowing to prevent it are two cranky, quirky, advocates, both called ‘Jolly’ who are at loggerheads with each other. Now, let us get into the cross examination.

A ruthless tycoon, Haribhai Khaitan, planning to expand his business empire, decides to acquire land in Bikaner, Rajasthan, under the guise of converting Bikaner into Boston, USA. With the help of corrupt government officials and an equally corrupt legislator, he manages to hoodwink and grab land owned by the indigenous people, living in the countryside, however, a group of 40 farmers and a woman with true grit, Janki Rajaram Solanki, resists take over. Distraught at the prospect of losing their land, and deeply shocked at being accused of having incestuous relations, members of her family commit suicide. In spite of such a huge tragedy, Janki is determined to hold on to her land, which was passed on by her husband’s ancestors to him. There is an NGO (Non-Government Organisation, known as Non-Profit Organisation, NPO, in the West), which is strengthening the cause of the farmers unwilling to part with their only real wealth and possession. But it has no impact on the machination of the corporation. This brings Janki to Delhi and she seeks out Advocate Mishra, also known as Jolly LL.B., a man known to have espoused the cause of poor litigants.

Janki tells Mishra that she is coming to him on a reference from a lady called Lakshmi. Mishra makes a joke of it, saying that he is always in need of ‘Lakshmi’ (the Hindu Goddess of wealth). He asks each of them for a fee of Rs.500 each which they say they cannot afford. Although he offers to reduce the fee to as low as Rs.200, they merely stare at him. He then asks them whether they have any money at all, and they say they have nothing. So he asks them how did they travel from Bikaner to Delhi and is told that they walked all the way. Unwilling to invest his own money in the case, he turns them away suggesting that they have probably come to the wrong Jolly LL.B. and that they should approach the other Jolly LL.B., No.1. Jolly LL.B. No.1, Advocate Tyagi, is equally unwilling to offer his services. Jolly 1 and Jolly 2 are always bickering about something or the other and accusing each other of stealing their clients, among other things. But, in an unimaginable scenario, the two Jollys join hands, to put-up a determined fight for the wronged and aggrieved farmers, and take on the might of the corporation.

There are three different elements at play here: a burning human and ecological tragedy, greedy and bloodsucking corporations and two advocates and a judge who are highly eccentric and humane in equal measures. Writer-Director, Subhash Kapoor, allots almost equal footage to each of the story elements. Balancing the three is a tight-rope walk. On one hand, we have an issue that affects large parts of our country and ancestral rights of impoverished village folk, and on the other hand, growing populations and urbanisation will necessarily devour millions of hectares of farm-land and render the village folk both homeless and jobless.

Making a film on such topical issues is commendable in itself, and Kapoor has given us a piece of bitter reality. However, it is extremely unlikely that individuals like the two Jollys will be able to do much to stem the rot. Realising this fact, he portrays them as accidental heroes, who succeed in bringing the film to a happy ending. But, in the process, he peeps into their domestic lives and includes several face-offs, many of them comic, some of them hilarious. It required extremely precise writing to make sure that the film does not make light of the alarming national issue, while side-tracking on to the antics of the two advocates and a judge--some of the exchanges between the advocates, between the advocates and the judge, and the judge’s own, kinks and peeves. It is too much of a co-incidence that after a brawl, the two advocates and their wives come up with offering the same kind of olive branch to each other, as a tool for calling a truce.

The average cine-goer’s heart must beat for the unfortunate villagers and he/she would like to see the villainous capitalist bite dust. Kapoor digs deeply into the unscrupulous mega-corp and its functioning. But, on the odd occasion, he goes over the top, as in the scene, where Khaitan is having an argument with Mishra, and his entire staff stands, in rows, right behind them, listening to it all, silently. At one stage, the company organises a car race on a track that it has built as a show of pomp, and an extension of its promise to convert Bikaner into Boston. But it is too much to see the two Jolly LL.B.s head towards the racing cars, astride huge camels. It is too much to accept that the two of them could have got access to the track, riding camels, and pulled off such an incredulous act, a master-stroke, under the full attention of the media. In the climax, too, the evidence against the corporation seems to have landed in the laps of the two Jollys.

As director, Subhash Kapoor shows great attention to detail. He is helped by some perfect casting in the supporting roles. While Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi are carry overs from the prequels, this, the 3rd part, deals with a problem of humungous proportions, and some really powerful actors where needed to give life to the newly introduced characters. Kapoor has found the right exponents alright. Though it might be hard for city-dwellers to believe that the smaller courts at Delhi function in anything like the manner depicted here, and in previous outings of the franchise, for all we know, this might be a faithful reproduction of a ground reality there.

Akshay Kumar is too much of a veteran and has donned so many hats, that reliving the role of Jolly LL.B. 2 poses no problem for him whatsoever. While he is a top star, Arshad Warsi as Jolly LL.B. 1, does not falter one bit, while matching up to him. Though there was no real need for showing the domestic side of the lives of the two advocates, Kapoor brings in two actresses to play the wives. Here, too, he is successful in integrating them with the plot and giving them just the right amount of footage and dialogue. Huma Qureshi and Amrita Rao do their bit, without transgressing on the narrative. Saurabh Shukla (Judge Tripathi) is always a delight to watch, so much so that you even go with him when he uses a website to date a lady police inspector, played by Shilpa Shukla (no relation to Saurabh). Watch out for two stellar performances, one by Seema Biswas as Janki and Gajraj Rao as Haribhai Khaitan. Ram Kapoor plays the high-flying (he travels by chartered planes) advocate, the son of a judge, and Khaitan’s in-house legal weapon. With his physique and familiar dialogue delivery, he fits the bill.

Seeing films like Jolly LL.B. 3 are such a relief from the blood-letting fare that keeps coming at us, relentlessly, week after week. If we ignore the few discrepancies of unnecessary and over the top sarcasm and humour, Jolly LL.B. 3 deserves to be seen, and the issues it raises must stir the consciences of film-goers who yearn for realistic, meaningful and contemporary cinema.  

Trailer: https://youtu.be/eSgJ8PfSUSk

Watch out for the Homebound review.