Subhash Kapoor – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: I had once tried to get a law degree from the Vampire Elder University.

Vampire Bat: I never heard about such an episode about you.

Vampire Owl: It was kept highly confidential for everyone’s interest.

Vampire Bat: What can happen if people know about your skills?

Vampire Owl: I will be given more work at the castle.

Vampire Bat: I thought you liked working at the Dracula Castle.

Vampire Owl: I always want some spare time, and this secret will be helpful for me.

Vampire Bat: Even now, you do not really spend that much time at work.

Vampire Owl: Nonsense. I am always working for the upliftment of vampire community, not for its fall.

Vampire Bat: You should know that there are special working committees for the same purpose. We are together in this one with Uncle Dracula.

[Gets a tea cake and three cups of orange tea].

What is the movie about? :: Rajaram Solanki (Robin Das), an elderly farmer from Bikaner in Rajasthan losses his land to a local builder and influential man Raghunath Bhardwaj (Sushil Pandey), as latter created fake documents to support his cause, and the same is accepted in the local court. His daughter-in-law Varsha Solanki (Sarah Hashmi) tries her best, but as the traditional local court of their village do not consider a widow woman’s words to be of any significance, she has no chance to make a difference and bring some hope to the situation either. This leads to Rajaram, who is also a poet, to write a final poem, and commit suicide by jumping into a river with stones tied to his legs, much to the dismay of Varsha who witnesses their family land being taken away by fraud by builders supported by politicians and powerful men from cities. But she realizes that this is not the case of only one farmer committing suicide, as protesting farmers from Parsaul, Uttar Pradesh also seems to be face the same trouble, with more builders and governments themselves trying to acquire more land for construction.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: A few years later, Delhi is seeing two Jollys in the same court – Jagdish Tyagi (Arshad Warsi) from Meerut and Jagdishwar Mishra (Akshay Kumar) from Kanpur are both practicing as advocates in the same city. Their identical nicknames are the reason for constant friction and professional rivalry due to clients approaching the wrong Jolly, and each of them trying to get more cases at the expense of the other. One day, when an NGO representing forty protesting farmers from Parsaul approaches Jagdish, he smartly redirects them to Jagdishwar, believing the case to be a burden without enough payment. But former’s wife Sandhya (Amrita Rao), an activist, later convinces him to take up the case for Janki, Rajaram’s widow, Janki Rajaram Solanki (Seema Biswas) without taking any money. Jagdishwar keeps feeling that he has the advantage compared to his rival with same nickname, but Pushpa Mishra (Huma Qureshi), Jagdishwar’s wife, has no value for him though, as he makes no money in comparison to what she would make if she sells anything from her boutique.

And what more would happen here as something more is to happen in the court? :: When a high-paying case which comes to Jagdish goes to Jagdishwar just because of the nickname, the fight becomes more serious, and they are even forced to come to a settlement in the presence of other lawyers in the nearby offices. The new problem of the farmers is centered on industrialist Haribhai Khaitan’s (Gajraj Rao) “Bikaner to Boston” project, which is a massive infrastructure plan supported by MLA Iqbal Singh Shekhawat (Raman Atre) and the district magistrate Avik Sengupta (Kharaj Mukherjee). After a number of twists, Jagdishwar is selected to represent the corporation against Jagdish. The case is presided over by Justice Sunder Lal Tripathi (Saurabh Shukla), who does not really want the Jollys in his courtroom again. Jagdishwar nicely wins a dismissal of Janki’s complaint much to the dismay of his rival and the farmers. But this would not be beginning or the end of the farmer struggles, as more conspiracies and acts of evil are to be unveiled. Where would the two Jollys stand related to the same?

The defence of Jolly LLB 3 :: The movie deals with a relevant topic of concern which would remain as something of significance as long as the world exists, and as it takes the side of farmers against the corporate evil with sincerity and seriousness without losing humour, there is that feeling of making it appealing to everyone. Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi and Saurabh Shukla lead the proceedings really well, while among the women, Amrita Rao makes the best impact, as she has always done while being underrated. The emotional side is mostly effective, and the revelations are indeed nice. There are some small little twists that happen around here, and the character development surely works well. It is that clean family entertainer that most people would love to have around among those general Bollywood troubles. This ends in such a way that applause is gained, and the two actors nicely getting into their acts shall remain a joy to watch as the experience shows in bringing the humour out of nowhere and with the shift of moods. Some dialogues will remain in our minds for the relevance in the present world rather than anything else.

The claws of flaw :: As the third movie of a series of fine flicks, this one does not raise its level, and it is a disappointment, considering what kind of content they actually have. There is a certain amount of lack of interest which also seems to make its way here and there as the movie progresses, sometimes leading to a certain lag. There are moments when it gets too preachy instead of letting things unfold. Some of the humour will also be applicable only to the usual Bollywood or North Indian audience, and it has not been a problem of just one movie, as keep staring at the movies that surround this one. The comic side of Bollywood has rarely been at its best in the last few years, unless it is copying from Malayalam movies. As the third movie, and with the characters of two successful earlier movies, this could have surely achieved more. There are so many moments when we feel that the whole thing could be made more interesting, but there seems to be the need to align with the safe side with this one. Well, you know that there is always the need to satisfy too many kinds of people as far as Bollywood is concerned, as nobody knows what offends whom.

How it finishes :: The way in which the movie takes on social issues with some humour, but still maintains the seriousness of the situation deserves our attention. The humour does not appeal to most of the audience, but stays strong overall. There were many paths which the movie could have taken to make this even better, but we would find this one effective enough in this way. It is still not as thought-provoking and humorous as the earlier movies, seemingly due to the need to balance two people of the same name coming from their own previous movies. The mostly engaging ride also ends well enough, even though it can be seen that sometimes the punches seem to be loaded for the sake of being there. The attempt to appeal to everyone is not that much there, but we adjust with that. The core issue of the movie still remains something to think about, and if that much of thought is achieved in a world of chaos and hopelessness for the common man, it is an achievement for the movie indeed.

Release date: 19th September 2025
Running time: 157 minutes
Directed by: Subhash Kapoor
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi, Saurabh Shukla, Amrita Rao, Huma Qureshi, Gajraj Rao, Seema Biswas

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl: I know this Jolly fellow. He was so jolly.

Vampire Bat: It is not that Jolly, but this one can be quite jolly too.

Vampire Owl: So, we have a sequel which has another Jolly, who is also a jolly fellow.

Vampire Bat: Yes, instead of Jagdish Tyagi, we have Jagdishwar Mishra. But we call them both Jolly.

Vampire Owl: That explains the change of cast. But then, this won’t be a real sequel.

Vampire Bat: Yes, but this is the second story of a Jolly, and it is just that it is another Jolly.

Vampire Owl: This is rather confusing with two of them being called the same name, despite having different names.

Vampire Bat: Well, this movie actually happens after the first, and we get a mention about the first movie by the character of the judge.

Vampire Owl: It would have still be nice if at least one person of the two was called Jaggu.

Vampire Bat: Well, these humans have a strange way of naming people again and again.

[Gets three cups of special tea with Tiger biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Jagdishwar Mishra a.k.a. Jolly (Akshay Kumar) is a lawyer who wishes to make it big as a lawyer, but with his chances a long way away, works as an assistant to one of the most famous lawyers of Lucknow, Rizvi Sahab (Ram Gopal Bajaj) at Lucknow. Jolly is not considered as a lawyer who can go the distance, as he is the son of the man hailing from Kanpur who was only an assistant for his whole career, and Jolly himself doesn’t have his own chamber even after trying so hard. A pregnant lady, Hina Siddiqui (Sayani Gupta) spends most of his time in and around court area, trying to convince any of the well-known lawyers to take up the case of his husband. She begs Jolly to make his senior lawyer to accept her case. With the need there to get two lakhs for the final payment of his chamber, Jolly lies to her that the senior lawyer has agreed to take her case, and a sum of two lakhs need to be paid as soon as possible, to which she agrees.

So, what happens next? :: After getting the money from her, Jolly inaugurates his new chamber on the day of Holi in style with his wife Pushpa Pandey (Huma Qureshi) and the rest of his well-wishers. But Hina who finds out about the same, reaches there and creates a scene. Jolly tells her that he intended to return the money after this was done, but she tells him that he should have also rejected her appeal, as everyone else, instead of cheating her – she returns home and commits suicide. Everyone including his own father blames Jolly for causing the death of a pregnant woman. Jolly is unable to sleep or think properly with Hina’s death in his mind. With the help of his friend and lawyer Birbal (Rajiv Gupta), he decides to filed a public interest litigation to get justice for Hina and her husband, something which was to be his biggest challenge in life.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: Jolly understands that the case about Hina’s husband Iqbal Qasim (Manav Kaul) was regarding his fake encounter by Police Inspector Suryaveer Singh (Kumud Mishra) on the very next day after their wedding, which brought him promotion. Iqbal was arrested by the police under the suspicion that he was an Islamic terrorist who reached the place from Jammu and Kashmir, and the same was confirmed later, and he is supposed to have shot a police constable while trying to escape, and the cop had died in the hospital later. The truth though, is that Suryaveer just shot him to make the encounter look more genuine, and by mistake he had ended up dead. Worried that he was going to land in big trouble, Suryaveer then hires his good friend and Lucknow’s best lawyer Pramod Mathur (Annu Kapoor), to take up his case, also paying fifty lakhs for the same. Can Jolly go against all odds to win the case and bring justice?

The defence of Jolly LLB 2 :: It is not that easy to work well with court-room drama movies and make them work, especially as things tend to get dull with the setting at the same place, and people tending to repeat the same thing again and again, but Jolly LLB 2, just like its predecessor, manages to be entertaining in more than one way. Well, the scenes inside the court are the best moments of the movie without doubt. We are so interested in knowing what happens by the end of the movie, that we find it difficult to move from the seat. The movie balances the comic side with the edge of the seat moments really well, and we get to see Akshay Kumar doing an amazing job as the protagonist who struggles to make it big. Saurabh Shukla brings the fun in between, and Sayani Gupta makes a heavy impact even with those lesser number of scenes. Huma Qureshi’s work is limited, but she does fine when she is there.

The claws of flaw :: There is the presence of those unnecessary songs and dance sequences which seem to make hardly any impact. The movie is also not without its ups and downs, and gets to the next level only later in the first half. There should also be questions about the way the truth is brought to light in this one, and you will also feel that some sequences are brought to us in such a way that the purpose is more to take melodrama higher rather than anything else. We feel that the innocence and simplicity of the first movie is not that much there in this one – we know how much that movie had raised the expectations so well. The audience also wonders if all of these, or at least most of these is actually possible inside a court. I am sure that this movie could have had many more interesting moments with some more divergence too. Also Huma Qureshi and Sayani Gupta could have been there for more.

How it finishes :: Jolly LLB 2 can be considered as good a movie as its predecessor when we have a look at it as a whole. Last year, Akshay Kumar had Airlift and Rustom to do the job for him after Baby and Brothers while going back longer, and this year, it is Jolly LLB 2 so far. There is also something to think about with this one, as one wonders how significant is the common man when facing the rich and the influential, for everyone don’t keep getting the saviours in time. Jolly LLB 2 could be the best Bollywood movies of the year for many people, and is sure to be in the top ten for almost everyone who watches movies regularly. There have been similar interesting movies in Malayalam too with Yes Your Honour starring Sreenivasan and the next level of the same was the Suresh Gopi starrer Melvilasom – all these are the kind of movies which could be watched together for some good quality court-room drama.

Release date: 10th February 2017
Running time: 137 minutes
Directed by: Subhash Kapoor
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Huma Qureshi, Sayani Gupta, Annu Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Kaustubh Pile, Manav Kaul, Kumud Mishra, Inaamulhaq, Sanjay Mishra, Vinod Nagpal, Brijendra Kala, Avijit Dutt, Rajiv Gupta, Sunil Kumar Palwal, Shubhangi Latkar, Ram Gopal Bajaj