Personally, I would have loved to see Arshad Warsi reprise the role. For he is a jolly good actor. But I see why they opted for the commercially viable superstar Akshay Kumar, who is making some wise script choices over the years, picking up subjects of civic interest serially. Looks like he woke up one day, after a string of silly, meaningless films and decided to do some meaningful and social cinema. And took up Special 26. To follow up with Baby, Airlift, Rustom, and now this. He has been a revelation the last few years, and it was pleasing to watch him be subtle and not let the star in him take over, giving ample opportunity to Annu Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, and Sayani Gupta, here. This also makes me look forward to his next one: Toilet – Ek Prem Katha.
The first half of Jolly LLB 2 is entertaining, but for some really shabby music. Huma Qureshi is just adding bells and whistles, here, in a role she have said easily NO to, but the paycheck may have been tempting, not to mention a project with an A-list star like Akshay. Rajiv Gupta, too, is reduced to a mere sidekick as Akshay's legal assistant, and his acting abilities could have been better utilised.
Post intermission, I enjoyed some excellent repartee between Annu Kapoor's and Akshay Kumar's characters. The dialogues writers deserve some special mention there.
Sayani Gupta is a total natural, and makes the audiences feel for her, continuing from where she left off, in terms of her acting abilities, in Margarita with a Straw, Fan and Parched.
Annu Kapoor is excellent. Terrific. I'm at a loss for words. Let me put it this way. It was nice watching him in a full-fledged role as I was so used to seeing him only on the small-screen hosting The Golden Era with Annu Kapoor on the Mastiii TV channel, for a while now.
Kumud Mishra sleepwalks in his role as the corrupt inspector, charged with carrying out a fake encounter.
There is also some silliness that the director takes liberties with, not to mention some over-the-top hamming by Saurabh Shukla. But Kallu mama, who reprises his role of Justice Tripathi, shows us his theatrical abilities and is first-rate, adding his own identity and buffoonery to the role.
Akshay, to me, is one of the most natural criers on screen. He does full justice as Jagdishwar Mishra aka Jolly, a lawyer from Kanpur, who takes up a widow's case following her suicide, after he initially dupes her of two lakh Rupees. He raises 'the bar' here, and makes this one of the better films to have come out of Bollywood in the last two years. This makes me want to go back and watch Jolly LLB, which I have missed so far. I've also read and heard that the first one was more realistic and sensible.
I'd love to see a law student diagnose the film part by part, though. :D
There is a lot of farce here, especially in the courtroom scenes, and in the doctoring of evidences very conveniently. The most annoying part to me was the inspector threatening Jolly right from the witness box, on more than one occasion, and the judge doing nothing about it. A little hard to believe, one would imagine. Also the convenient escape of Fahim Butt from Kashmir all the way straight into the Lucknow courtroom.
Also notice how Qureshi's dress switches colours unsystematically, between white and pink, during the Holi song. Also notice that the mobile number only has 9 digits behind Akki's scooter. ;) One may understand that it is to avoid people spamming or calling that number, but when they spend so much money on a film, can't they use a new pre-paid SIM and do away with it, once the film is done? Food for thought, maybe.
The preview did mention that the film is based on true events. That was misleading to me, as the film clearly asserted it's a pure work of fiction, at the very beginning, in Akshay Kumar's own voice. Why mislead, I wondered.
Yet, I enjoyed this jolly good ride despite many loopholes in the script. Director Subhash Kapoor has in his own charming way come up with a successful franchise, here. The first one was a sleeper hit. This one a huge commercial success. But, the director would have to amp up his game, in his next instalment, and learn to make it more realistic, and with a better script, in order for it to be better. Add lesser Bollywood masala, and take it to the next level, for he sure has the potential to make good courtroom drama. Hope the saga continues.
My verdict: 3 out of 5.
The first half of Jolly LLB 2 is entertaining, but for some really shabby music. Huma Qureshi is just adding bells and whistles, here, in a role she have said easily NO to, but the paycheck may have been tempting, not to mention a project with an A-list star like Akshay. Rajiv Gupta, too, is reduced to a mere sidekick as Akshay's legal assistant, and his acting abilities could have been better utilised.
Post intermission, I enjoyed some excellent repartee between Annu Kapoor's and Akshay Kumar's characters. The dialogues writers deserve some special mention there.
Sayani Gupta is a total natural, and makes the audiences feel for her, continuing from where she left off, in terms of her acting abilities, in Margarita with a Straw, Fan and Parched.
Annu Kapoor is excellent. Terrific. I'm at a loss for words. Let me put it this way. It was nice watching him in a full-fledged role as I was so used to seeing him only on the small-screen hosting The Golden Era with Annu Kapoor on the Mastiii TV channel, for a while now.
Kumud Mishra sleepwalks in his role as the corrupt inspector, charged with carrying out a fake encounter.
There is also some silliness that the director takes liberties with, not to mention some over-the-top hamming by Saurabh Shukla. But Kallu mama, who reprises his role of Justice Tripathi, shows us his theatrical abilities and is first-rate, adding his own identity and buffoonery to the role.
Akshay, to me, is one of the most natural criers on screen. He does full justice as Jagdishwar Mishra aka Jolly, a lawyer from Kanpur, who takes up a widow's case following her suicide, after he initially dupes her of two lakh Rupees. He raises 'the bar' here, and makes this one of the better films to have come out of Bollywood in the last two years. This makes me want to go back and watch Jolly LLB, which I have missed so far. I've also read and heard that the first one was more realistic and sensible.
I'd love to see a law student diagnose the film part by part, though. :D
Also notice how Qureshi's dress switches colours unsystematically, between white and pink, during the Holi song. Also notice that the mobile number only has 9 digits behind Akki's scooter. ;) One may understand that it is to avoid people spamming or calling that number, but when they spend so much money on a film, can't they use a new pre-paid SIM and do away with it, once the film is done? Food for thought, maybe.
The preview did mention that the film is based on true events. That was misleading to me, as the film clearly asserted it's a pure work of fiction, at the very beginning, in Akshay Kumar's own voice. Why mislead, I wondered.
Yet, I enjoyed this jolly good ride despite many loopholes in the script. Director Subhash Kapoor has in his own charming way come up with a successful franchise, here. The first one was a sleeper hit. This one a huge commercial success. But, the director would have to amp up his game, in his next instalment, and learn to make it more realistic, and with a better script, in order for it to be better. Add lesser Bollywood masala, and take it to the next level, for he sure has the potential to make good courtroom drama. Hope the saga continues.
My verdict: 3 out of 5.
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