Jolly LLB 3 review: An engaging and socially relevant entertainer that lacks the sharpness and wit of its predecessors!

Helmed by Subhash Kapoor, Jolly LLB 3 sees Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi join forces to fight for farmers against illegal land acquisition.   

Humor and satire are powerful tools to convey a strong social message and Subhash Kapoor’s Jolly LLB franchise served as a fine Bollywood example of it. The first two films, while packed with humor, were sharp in its commentary on the broken system, class divide, and how challenging the quest for justice for the poor is all the while delivering entertainment and enlightenment in equal measures. The third film carries this brand legacy with sincerity, however falls slightly short of recreating the magic of its predecessors. 

A 'shady lawyer experiencing a change of heart and fighting for the weak while giving some thought-provoking insights to our society' forms the crux of the franchise and Jolly LLB 3 religiously follows the template. The film opens by quickly, diving into the issue of farmers and forced land acquisition in the name of cosmopolitan development through Janki Amma’s (Seema Biswas) quest for justice after her farm gets fraudulently acquired by a corporate shark, and in the cruel aftermath of which she loses her entire family. We are then introduced to the two Jollys - Jagdishwar Tyagi (Arshad Warsi) and Jagdishwar Mishra (Akshay Kumar), who are completely at loggerheads with each other, stealing clients and engaging in petty fights while (ill) practising in the same court. Their conscience and Janki Amma's resilience inspires the two Jollys to come together, setting aside their egos and differences and take on the all-powerful Imperial Group headed by Haribhai Khaitan (Gajraj Rao).

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While we must give it to makers for handling the issues of systematic corruption and corporate greed earnestly, its stretched run-time and uneven narration impact the efficacy of the film. The film lacks the razor-sharpness of its predecessors with regards to its story, screenplay, and humor. The first half in particular takes a lot of time settling its characters and the central conflict of the story. The chemistry between the two Jollys, their banters and sly digs at each other keep you entertained and inject some much-needed lighter moments during the intense legal battle. Having said that, the comedy in this one doesn’t land as organically as it did in the first two outings, parts of which looked forced and unnecessary, especially the romantic track of judge Sundar Lal Tripathi (Saurabh Shukla). A few scenes reek of lazy writing, and I was particularly disappointed with opposition lawyer Vikram Rai Chaudhary’s (Ram Kapoor) arguments during the final hearing of the case. Yes, I know Chaudhary’s defence for Khaitan is meant to infuriate the audience, and go in the losing cause, but his statements on poverty, development, and farmer suicide are so weak that even a fifth grader who had been introduced to the subject of economics in their recent semester will get irritated while listening to them. While Kapoor looks convincing in his embodiment of the country's top lawyer, his defence doesn’t allow you to take him seriously or worry for how your heroes will counter-argue to it, a feeling consistent with Boman Irani and Anu Kapoor’s characters in previous films.  

Gajraj Rao, as the business tycoon who makes farmers' protest a battle of his ego, looks convincing as the antagonist who can go to any extent to weed out any challenger to his ambitious projects and might. He effortlessly sheds his image of a calm and kind father figure and slips into the skin of the cut-through Khaitan. Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi, with their impeccable comic timing and depth convey the different shades of their respective Jollys well. They are still small-time lawyers who have bills to pay and can be selfish for reasons any middle-class person with family responsibilities could be, forcing them to use certain loopholes in the system to their advantage to run their homes. However, their innate goodness makes you root for them right from the word go, thanks to the actors' measured performances and convincing character arcs. 

Having said that, I have no qualms in asserting that the real star of the film remains Saurabh Sukhla, the man whose entry sequence, in fact, elicited the loudest cheer from the audience. Shukla, once again, steals the show as the affable yet authoritative judge Sundar Lal Tripathi, who works not only according to the letter, but in the spirit of his great duties as a judge. A scene that echoed this sentiment and the one that I particularly found heart warming was where he delays a three sentence order just to give Arshad’s Jolly another chance to present his case with more preparedness in the next hearing, because at the bottom of his heart, he knows no matter how chaotic the Jollys could get, they are on the right side of the fight at the end of the day.

Needless to mention, he packs a punch in his comic scenes but also conveys the weight of his position, as he could be over-friendly or seem smitten by the high-profile attendees in his court, however, he won't hesitate to stand his ground and uphold the dignity of his chair if anyone tries to demean it. Shukla essays all these shades with the effortlessness of a feather on the breeze. Seema Biswas’s intensity and silent courage as Janki Amma, who refuses to surrender to Khaitan, is inspiring. She is a woman grappling with the loss of her son, an army martyr, the suicides of her daughter-in-law and husband and a daunting legal battle with limited to no resources, yet she displays immense courage and determination to fight for her pride, which isn’t only hers but all the farmers of her village and in turn the entire country whose farms have been wrenched by the corporates in the name of development. Biswas’ Janki speaks less but lets her pained eyes do the talking, her silences speak to you and provoke you to think about and stand with her community, who are in fact the bedrock of our country's economy and they've played the most crucial role in making it self-sufficient.

Overall, Jolly LLB 3, despite being inconsistent and stretched, is a well-intentioned film with rock-solid performances that will keep you hooked.

Jolly LLB 3 is playing in theaters near you! 

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