Jolly LLB 3 is a pro-farmer and anti-corruption film that succeeds in delivering laughs along with its message to a considerable extent.
You may come to watch Jolly LLB 3 for Akshay Kumar and/or Arshad Warsi, but you will stay put to be blown away by Saurabh Shukla, who delivers an effortless masterclass in acting, ably supported by other stalwarts like Seema Biswas and Gajraj Rao.
Director Subhash Kapoor does a good job of leveraging the two lead actors, both blessed with comic timing, to explore a serious and unfortunately prevalent topic like farmer suicides in a sensitive manner, barring a few quibbles.
Jolly LLB 3 appears to be a carrier of good news for both Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi, considering how their past movies fared at the box office. The verdict is out, and it is a win.
The film was promoted as “double trouble” with the two actors, but viewers end up watching more of Akshay Kumar on screen than Arshad Warsi. This is ironic because Jolly LLB 3 clearly makes it evident that Arshad Warsi is Jolly No 1, and Akshay Kumar is Jolly No 2.
In the second half of the film, Akshay Kumar gets a full-on chase sequence to flaunt his ’90s khiladi tag, while Arshad Warsi is mostly missing in action, except when he delivers the concluding remarks in the case.
But it is Saurabh Shukla’s return as the perennially irritable Judge Sunder Lal Tripathi who outshines both titular protagonists-and how! (Filing a petition for a Sunder Lal Tripathi spin-off right away.)
In Jolly LLB 3, the veteran actor shows other, sometimes more ‘Tender’ facets of his personality. He enters the court premises in a tracksuit, jogging his way to his chambers, and receives thunderous applause from the audience.
Recently widowed, Judge Sunder Lal Tripathi is now into self-care-he drinks protein shakes, opts for green tea over regular tea, is a fitness freak, and is a new lover on the prowl with a massive crush on the local SHO, played by Shilpa Shukla (remember the defiant hockey player Bindiya from Chak De! India?).
Sunder Lal Tripathi may fawn over high-profile celebrity advocates or reputed businessmen, but his sense of justice and self are never misplaced. He knows he is the judge, and what the judge rules, stands.
In a key scene, after Sunder Lal Tripathi demonstrates to the courtroom why he is the judge, the camera cuts to the Tricolour kept on his desk and a red rose-one of the most meaningful cutaways in the movie.
Getting back to the film: the first Jolly LLB was set in Delhi and followed a hit-and-run case with Arshad Warsi’s Jolly Tyagi at the centre. Jolly LLB 2 was based in Lucknow, with Akshay Kumar’s Jolly Mishra following a fake encounter case.
In Jolly LLB 3, the action shifts back to Delhi, where viewers get both the Jollys for the price of one (ticket). There are many instances of the two Jollys initially locking horns, both figuratively and literally, only to join forces for the greater good and help a poor woman farmer from the fictional Rajasthan village of Parsaul get justice.
According to the film’s disclaimer, the plot of Jolly LLB 3 is loosely inspired by incidents that occurred in Bhatta Parsaul, a village in Uttar Pradesh, back in 2011.
In the film, a farmer-poet named Rajaram Solanki dies by suicide after the gram panchayat hands over his land to the local tehsildar because of a loan default.
We find out that the tehsildar, the district magistrate, the MLA, and the police are all in cahoots with a menacing but dignified Delhi-based builder, Haribhai Khaitan, who wants all the land in the village for his prestige project ‘Bikaner To Boston’.
Cut to the present day, when Rajaram Solanki’s wife, Janki, takes up the mantle to get justice for her husband. Seema Biswas as Janki gives a searing performance. You will not forget her haunting eyes, which speak volumes beyond her dialogues.
“Registan ki maati hai sahab, yahan sikka uchhalne se aawaz sunaayi nahin deti, ret mein dhal jaave hai,” Janki tells a generally calm Haribhai Khaitan, visibly bruising his ego, when she tears up the Rs 10 lakh cheque as compensation for her husband’s death.
Seema Biswas’s commanding screen presence is a reminder of her Bandit Queen days. She may have grown older but has only become more lethal with her acting chops.
Gajraj Rao is phenomenal in his clinical portrayal of Haribhai Khaitan, a power-hungry businessman who believes poverty impedes the country’s success and that India cannot become a superpower without the contribution of entrepreneurs like him.
He sits like a Roman emperor in the balcony of a makeshift stage at the inauguration of an IG racing circuit, built on the land taken away from lakhs of farmers, watching the car race in what appears to be his personal Colosseum built in the Rajasthan desert.
There is also a mention of a certain business tycoon, VM Bhai, who is hiding in London because he did not keep a low profile as an entrepreneur-we all know who VM Bhai is.
Amrita Rao and Huma Qureshi return to the Jolly LLB franchise and help steer the narrative in whatever way the screenplay allowed.
However, Jolly LLB 3 suffers from an uneven screenplay that breaks the spell of tense, sombre moments by inserting gags. It is beyond banal that the audience still laughs at jibes like “genda,” “mota”, and toilet humour.
Also Read | Jolly LLB 3 Prediction: Can A Strong Trailer And Akshay Kumar-Arshad Warsi Duo Storm The Box Office?