A courtroom drama will usually offer a bit of these elements: A fierce public speaker, an ever evolving case, high stakes, an argument with a dramatic twist, and a resolution, if not happy, then appealing in some way. “Court” has none of this. The summation from the lawyers struggles to keep your attention. The case is amazing, but restfully so. The arguments are relatively irrelevant and filled with jargon. For most of its mind-blowing 116minute runtime, the viewers are left with some resolution quixotic.
“Court” is about Narayan Kamble, an elderly folk singer from Mumbai, who is arrested under strange circumstances. The state claims that a song he sang led to a manhole worker committing suicide, which ultimately makes him responsible for the man’s death. The case comes to the notice of Vinay Vora (Vivek Gomber), a flourishing lawyer who seems to have had a good education narayan’s case and takes it. He is pitted against the public prosecutor Nutan (Geetanjali Kulkarni), who doesn’t give two pennies about Narayan’s condition or the rationality of the case. Together, they appear before Judge Sadavarte (Pradeep Joshi), who prioritizes everything apart from his old moral standing rigid assumption of the law. In this unlikely funny film, the judge wouldn’t listen to any case because the pleader, a woman, was wearing a sleeveless top. There are times when one feels that the real accused in “Court” is the entire Indian society and its legal system.
Almost six decades ago, Sidney Lumet locked a dozen men in a jury into a single room in “12 Angry Men.” The setting was cut-off which would make the audience understand why people’s lives so greatly drove them to interpret the law and the unfeeling facts. Tamhane employs a different route to achieve a similar conclusion. His script is mildly embellished but meticulously needs. It portrays the lives of the characters outside the courtroom like it is crucial to understanding their actions in it. This is equally important to the humanistic aspect of the film. No one character may come across as an antagonist bent on destroying Narayan’s life, but rather as ordinary people within an unfair system.
‘Court’ presents viewers with Vora, a seemingly extravagant character, shopping for wine and cheese or socially munching with his upper-middle-class buddies at an upscale restaurant. He clearly has money to spend, and there’s no surprise he speaks English at court, since it’s pointless to try to win the approval of his colleagues. “Court” also attempts to personify Nutan in detail: perhaps, looking like a capable woman attempting to balance her work as a wife and mother while hoping to receive a promotion. And speak about driving freinds to work – imagine her using olive oil in her culinary adventures.
The feeling that ‘Court’ has the possibility of coming to an end existed at one point. Definately not, for the purpose was almost achieved. This universe and all that it entails have been encapsulated in a single shot. The directing then leads to the stirring ending. But the film does not end there. After a minute of confusion, Tamhane departs from the settled pace, showing us the other side of the picture. Through scenes that are all breathtaking in their confidence, he brilliantly marks his objectives.
It’s as if the actors breathe life into what’s written on paper. In the role of the rich lawyer in the film, Gomber, who was also the producer, portrays him with a sense of sleepy ease. He goes bonkers during one episode after being rudely awakened to the fact that he is surrounded by an outdated culture. It’s not only the fact that he is sad which gives his character depth, but also a deeper layer of complexity. Kulkani is aptly cast as an average Maharashtrian woman. Her deadpan English reading of the charge sheet is so amusingly true to life that one can’t help but laugh when she switches to Marathi after finishing. Some performers were amateur actors with no formal training. And in the case of the woman playing the deceased’s wife, it is chilling in how unacted the scene is, in hindsight of the fact that she is a real person. (She is referred to as a widow in real life, as her spouse was a manhole laborer.)
This case seems never-ending, In an echoing manner, Mrs Desai, the photographer, has an endless bordering style of filming. For some other directors, scenes tend to be cut shortly after those few seconds or minutes of action.
This contributes to the more realistic feel of the film; the action looks more like it was caught by chance rather than staged with effort. It is also a testament to the astonishing detail which went into designing the film’s setting. When one character gets beaten up at the scene of the restaurant, the composition makes it possible for you to see the guard in the background run for the safety of the house, but the long take makes you follow the action which he is cleverly trying to conceal.
That, perhaps, is why ‘Court’ is a superb courtroom drama: it appeals to the spectators, both as a jury and a witness and offers a wide set of arguments to contend with. After the final credits have rolled, it is difficult to forget this one.
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