Jolly LLB 3 review: Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi's powerful courtroom showdown elevates the film

The introductory part — loosely based on Delhi’s Nanda BMW case — starred Arshad Warsi in the eponymous role. The filmmakers replaced Warsi with Akshay Kumar in the sequel, set in Lucknow. This one brings the two actors in the same role.

Wherein both Warsi, as in Jagdish Tyagi, and Kumar, i.e. Jagdishwar Mishra, are Jolly, LLB, of course. Rather than Warsi playing ‘Circuit’ to Kumar’s lead, they’re at each other’s throats, to start with. 

Given the confusion between their names and the poaching of clients, as a result — you could treat this powwow as western Uttar Pradesh (Tyagi, Meerut) vs eastern UP (Mishra, from Kanpur, having recently moved to Delhi, from the film’s second part). 

That neither character bothers to crack their respective twang to the core, I guess, is okay. For you’re more interested in what they’re up to. 

Which is while fighting petty cases inside and outside the court, to keep their kitchens running, after all. Rather than anything lofty, or deeply ambitious. 

Consider the first case in the film, where a man at 80 — who can’t tell between “sonography and pornography” — gets duped into marrying a crossdresser. 

That you can tell whether the said wife is mahila or male, in less than a minute, is not the point.

Nyay (justice) is clearly blind in this case, that Jolly Mishra wins on behalf of the obvious offender. This sorta matter hardly builds confidence in the court; let alone the film that’s to follow, thereafter.

Wherein one of India’s richest men (Gajraj Rao), worth Rs 38,000 crore, engages directly with Mishra Ji, a random district court lawyer — unless he’s aware that’s Akshay Kumar — who walks in to the business titan’s mansion, wondering if it’s a hotel? 

Well, didn’t he just enter a home from the main gate! I suppose, humour’s the purpose. Whether or not the jokes always land. Several do.  As it is, both Kumar and Warsi are generally a joy to watch. And comedy best showcases their main character energies, anyway. Here’s what’s changed since the first Jolly LLB (2013) came into the scene.

At least, the Supreme Court and High Courts have opened their interiors and actual proceedings to live television. You can see, first hand, how they operate, forcing films/series, ideally, to represent them more realistically.  

Also, enough great series on OTTs — Court Kacheri, Guilty Minds, Criminal Justice, et al — have authentically recreated the courtroom drama that, for decades, resided in mainstream Hindi cinema’s melodrama alone. 

Making it harder, hence, for the filmmakers to retain the novelty of Jolly LLB itself. 

Here’s what’s not changed, besides Akshay Kumar’s jaw line. Actor Saurabh Shukla is simply as adorable as the cuddly, cranky Judge Sunder Lal Tripathi. 

Only, he appears as interested in the dates he allots in his courtroom as those he hopes to find outside it, through a dating app! 

He’s hilariously besotted by the local cop/SHO (the equally lovely, Shilpa Shukla). As ever, he believes more in the “spirit than the letter” of law/constitution. And yes, now, two Jollys, in place of one, give him anxiety that morning jogs can hardly cure. 

Shukla is also a writer-director himself. Which, possibly, helps him add a layer or two to his characters/lines that actors chiefly following a script may not pull off with as much ease. 

It’s hardly a wonder then that a film with two stars in them, already, has Shukla tower over both, on occasion, all through the three Jolly LLBs, in fact!

More so the third instalment. That, beyond the actors, actually belongs to a larger idea. Something I didn’t see coming. 

Land, politics and its complete corporate takeover is the point of this picture. In terms of degree, this Jolly LLB, thus, graduates to an LLM. 

The subject is obviously inspired by clashes between farmers and police that took place at the twin villages, Bhatta and Parsaul, near Greater Noida, UP, over land compensation, in 2011. But this is a movie that belongs to the times. For, governments may go. Greed stays where it was. 

And it continues to define contemporary politics — that few Mumbai directors have found various entertaining entry-points to consistently comment on, as Subhash Kapoor (multiple seasons of Maharani, film Madam Chief Minister, Jolly LLBs, of course). Shabash! 

Foot-soldiers for large-scale frauds/land scams as in this film are easy to co-opt — while they “don’t sell their potential to cheap stuff that’s emotional.” 

Does it matter then if it’s the British East India Company or any other Indian company still lording over the state, where people have fewer rights, regardless?

I’m getting these thoughts through most of this film’s second half — so much superior to its first half (an absolute rarity) — that, true to its genre, culminates with a final showdown in the courtroom, which is hard to match. 

Did I expect this? Nope. Did I eventually love the film more, as a result? Yup. I suspect, so would you.

*YUCK  **WHATEVER  ***GOOD  ****SUPER  *****AWESOME