Jolly LLB 3 review: The court is mightier than the corporate

In a week where the slate of new releases is as diverse as Anurag Kashyap’s Nishaanchi, Aryan Khan’s The Ba***ds of Bollywood, Apple TV’s The Morning Show Season 4, Margot Robbie’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and the Sundance-winning Marathi romantic-drama Sabar Bonda, also in theatres is Jolly LLB 3, bringing together the two earthy, bumbling advocates of the much-loved courtroom-comedy franchise.

In the new installment, the two Jollys—one from Meerut (Arshad Warsi), the other from Kanpur (Akshay Kumar)—find themselves working in the same Delhi court and feeding off of each other’s clients, resulting in an equation that is a mix of rivalry and ribaldry. Until a case coerces them to combine forces.

In a post-truth era ruled by techno-capitalism, it’s heartening to see a film questioning the idea of development, nation building, inequality and entitlement the old school way. Though Jolly LLB 3 is arguably the weakest entry in the franchise so far, like its predecessors, it is unafraid to speak truth to power, which requires a greater resolve now more than ever, considering our current, carefully-constructed, silence-rewarding socio-economic environment.

The hot-button issue in focus this time is the land grabbing of marginalised farmers by corporate giants in the garb of national interest, which more often than not pushes them to the gallows. Writer-director Subhash Kapoor zooms in on the perverse, precarious situation through the suicide of one elderly farmer in Bikaner’s Parsaul village. It is when his haggard widow Janki (Seema Biswas) knocks on the doors of the two Jollys demanding justice that the stage is set for action.

At 157 minutes, Jolly LLB 3’s biggest win is its solid acting performances, especially by two key members of the support cast who do much of the heavyweight lifting. Gajraj Rao is sly, manipulative and endlessly avaricious as Haribhai Khaitan, one of India’s wealthiest businessmen who would stop at nothing to get what he wants. Meanwhile, Saurabh Shukla continues his dream run on this franchise as the wildly fascinating judge Sunder Lal Tripathi. Such is his pull that his presence looms large on this installment and benefits infinitely from it.

It is the central arc featuring the two eponymous heroes that leaves much to be desired. In the last 12 years, Subhash Kapoor has painstakingly created a goldmine for himself, courtesy the runaway success of this franchise. He could have dug in any direction, so rife with possibilities was the coming together of the two Jollys. However, beyond the sketchy rivalry/ribaldry, their equation is never allowed to take off. It is not given enough space or depth to blossom into anything else or more.

What irks worse is knowing how terrific and unmatched the comedic talents of Arshad Warsi and Akshay Kumar are and what could have been if only they were explored, exploited with greater rigor. But Jolly LLB 3 is more of a drama than a comedy and although it tries to strike a balance, Akshay Kumar—to no one’s surprise—gets the better scenes and the bigger dialogues.

Amrita Rao and Huma Qureshi reprise their roles from the previous films. Shilpa Shukla also makes a brief appearance as judge Sunder Lal Tripathi’s love interest. And there is also Seema Biswas’s quiet, unwavering rage. But this is a man’s world and women exist primarily to serve as moral compasses.

Jolly LLB 3 may not have much for its women to do, but it does manage to put the spirit of the law before the letter and make you question your complacency and complicity while at it.