Akshay Kumar polishes his everyman act yet again for Jolly LLB 2. As a bumbling lawyer, Akshay’s range is somewhere between Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Manithan act and Jolly LLB’s Arshad Warsi.
That’s not to say Akshay is bad, especially. Like his character, and several others before, Akshay is average.
The man does try, however. Relegated to being Mr. Congeniality in the rat race with the Khans, Akshay has consistently tested himself with films like Airlift, Rustom etc. Yet, this same experimenting ensures that the actor is constantly out of depth, stepping in to shoes meant for better acting talents.
He doesn’t let it affect him however. And that’s a fine talent.
*****
In the sequel to the legal comedy, Jolly LLB, Akshay Kumar steps into the shoes of Arshad Warsi, a fine comedic talent in his own right. Akshay’s brand of comedy, on the other hand, is more slapstick. Too obvious for a satire such as this.
Satire this film is, at-least to its director Subhash Kapoor. It wants to move people by showing bad cops shooting innocent people; and the resultant cover-ups.
Our slow-witted legal eagle is assigned to uncover all such cover-ups and at the same time, unleash dramatic sad violin infused speeches about bad cops, evil judges, ignorant people – the kind that we’ve all heard in 80’s films.
Also a problem is Huma Qureshi’s supposedly liberated woman. The actress plays Jolly’s wife, Pushpa, and seems to exist in the film only to prove that Lucknowi women can drink whisky. Pushpa does help Jolly in his endeavour, and perhaps that’s a plus. But largely, she is ignored.
Precedence is obviously given to the men in this legal game. The judge Sunderlal Tripathi (a brilliant Saurabh Shukla), defense attorney Mathur (Annu Kapoor) and prosecutor Jagdishwar ‘Jolly’ Mishra (Akshay Kumar) butt heads again and again; but it is Shukla’ performance as Tripathi that wins over the audience.
*****
Recommended
At its very core, Jolly LLB 2 is the story of a money loving underdog who finally sees the light i.e. the point of being a lawyer is justice, not money. But, Subhash Kapoor, in his capacity as a ‘director of a film with an A list star’ sees fit to give us one tragedy after another. He unleashes one done-to-death trope after another (Pregnant! Widow! Pregnant Widow!) in order to get the sob fest going.
Only, this film did not need this level of pathos. Finally, the film suffers, stuck as it is, somewhere between satire and legal drama.
The safe bet is to relish it for Shukla’s fine performance, and laugh out loud at Akshay’s antics.
Any other expectation will not be fulfilled.
*****
The Jolly LLB 2 review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.