When I saw this movie, throughout the movie I was cringing within myself, living in this obnoxious violent world that uses law, morals and intelligence doing crimes with impunity. God forbid – to be exposed to such type of hidden violence of our society that may be reeling out injustice to thousands of innocence people on daily basis. It gave me a couple of sleepless nights and broad daylight nightmares.
Court is a simple story of a retired school teacher and folk singer dalit political activist Narayan Kamble (a real life activists Vira Sathidar played brilliant) who is arrested for a bizarre accusation of 'abetment of suicide' of a sewerage worker because of the lyrics of the passionate folk-activist-songs he sings. The court drama is set as real and as impassionate as possible with sporadic peeks into the pragmatic personal lives of public prosecutor Maharashtrian lawyer Nutan (Geetanjali Kulkarni – natural accent / diction and typical advocate performance) and Gujarati defence lawyer Vinay Vora, played by producer of the movie Vivek Gomber, and lastly presided by the superstitious judge Sadavarte (Pradeep Joshi) who is seen dozing on a park bench as the end credits rolls by.
The crippling monotony and lack of empathy for innocent, embedded with bureaucratic procedures and archaic court law makes a dark comedy satire of the times we live in.
Brilliantly written, visioned and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane inspired seeing films of stalwarts like Krzysztof Kieslowski and Jia Zhangke. Director Tamhane took nearly 3 years to complete this project researching, writing and executing. And that shows in each frame and character enacted. Nearly 1800 people were auditioned from which mostly non-filmi people were selected, who in turn also helped in production work at the set. The laborious tasks of perfect pitch at times took them to shoot some scenes 50-60 retakes.
Static shots by cinematographer Mrinal Desai add us being part of the setting of the court-room drama with each scene mounting our frustrations by leaps and bounds.
Ten minutes prior to the actual ending when the court is adjourned Director Tamhane closes the shot with a dark screen as a prelude to building anger within the sensitive audiences for what is next to come – the judge enjoying with his family and friends at a picnic during his vacation. Tamhane pushes the mirror of reality and slaps the audiences on its face to be aware of the unseen violence that goes on behind each scene of joy and pleasure, dance and songs.
It leaves such a deep impact that next time one sees people happy and jumping, one is un-mistakably not going to forget the terror some of them might have left behind in invisible people's lives.
I would strongly recommend everyone, especially students of law, interns, lawyers, advocates, magistrates and judges to see this movie and do some serious introspection on their role in perpetuating legal forms of crude violence through their professional careers that may impede justice especially for those who are innocent.
Lastly, kudos to Vivek Gomber to have trust, faith and backing such a wonderful script and believing the director's vision to bring life to a master piece, that should be a compulsory viewing for every cinema- lover.
A subtle but frightening and deeply disturbing brilliant masterpiece fascinatingly portraying honest violent satire of Indian judiciary and our modern society!
(Rating 8.25 out of 10)
Court is a simple story of a retired school teacher and folk singer dalit political activist Narayan Kamble (a real life activists Vira Sathidar played brilliant) who is arrested for a bizarre accusation of 'abetment of suicide' of a sewerage worker because of the lyrics of the passionate folk-activist-songs he sings. The court drama is set as real and as impassionate as possible with sporadic peeks into the pragmatic personal lives of public prosecutor Maharashtrian lawyer Nutan (Geetanjali Kulkarni – natural accent / diction and typical advocate performance) and Gujarati defence lawyer Vinay Vora, played by producer of the movie Vivek Gomber, and lastly presided by the superstitious judge Sadavarte (Pradeep Joshi) who is seen dozing on a park bench as the end credits rolls by.
The crippling monotony and lack of empathy for innocent, embedded with bureaucratic procedures and archaic court law makes a dark comedy satire of the times we live in.
Brilliantly written, visioned and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane inspired seeing films of stalwarts like Krzysztof Kieslowski and Jia Zhangke. Director Tamhane took nearly 3 years to complete this project researching, writing and executing. And that shows in each frame and character enacted. Nearly 1800 people were auditioned from which mostly non-filmi people were selected, who in turn also helped in production work at the set. The laborious tasks of perfect pitch at times took them to shoot some scenes 50-60 retakes.
Static shots by cinematographer Mrinal Desai add us being part of the setting of the court-room drama with each scene mounting our frustrations by leaps and bounds.
Ten minutes prior to the actual ending when the court is adjourned Director Tamhane closes the shot with a dark screen as a prelude to building anger within the sensitive audiences for what is next to come – the judge enjoying with his family and friends at a picnic during his vacation. Tamhane pushes the mirror of reality and slaps the audiences on its face to be aware of the unseen violence that goes on behind each scene of joy and pleasure, dance and songs.
It leaves such a deep impact that next time one sees people happy and jumping, one is un-mistakably not going to forget the terror some of them might have left behind in invisible people's lives.
I would strongly recommend everyone, especially students of law, interns, lawyers, advocates, magistrates and judges to see this movie and do some serious introspection on their role in perpetuating legal forms of crude violence through their professional careers that may impede justice especially for those who are innocent.
Lastly, kudos to Vivek Gomber to have trust, faith and backing such a wonderful script and believing the director's vision to bring life to a master piece, that should be a compulsory viewing for every cinema- lover.
A subtle but frightening and deeply disturbing brilliant masterpiece fascinatingly portraying honest violent satire of Indian judiciary and our modern society!
(Rating 8.25 out of 10)