Praveen Lulekar
I begin to write this with a complex. So
much has been written about this film and in such great words, that I wonder
what new I can offer! I’m sure by the time this review reaches you, you would
have booked your tickets and getting ready to watch Court. Lines like ‘a
fine critique of the judiciary’, ‘a staggering account of the caste system in
India’ or ‘exposing the real face of democracy in India’ would have given you a
(false) sense of a rebellion. I do not claim to be superior, not even
different, but I do feel that I should convey what the film is in the context
of what we are used to as film-goers.
Court is
definitely a depiction of what we are as a country and as people. It probes the
existence of objectivity and neutrality in our system. But what earns it such
high accolades is its highly subtle and low-key treatment. This lifts it from
being a fiction to a document of immense potential. As audience, this is what
we need to appreciate.
Narayan Kamble (Vira Sathidar) is a
65-year old Dalit Shahir (folk singer) who sings songs that are purportedly
against the system. He gets arrested one day on charges of abetment of suicide.
It is accused that a drainage cleaner has committed suicide because Narayan
Kamble has sung a song that roused the cleaners to do so. Vinay Vora (Vivek
Gomber) fights the court case for Kamble, Nutan (Geetanjali Kulkarni) is the
public prosecutor and Sadavarte (Pradeep Joshi) is the judge. As the case
progresses, we get a thorough insight in the functioning of the court and also
into the lives of the advocates and the judge.
The first thing that strikes you is the
style of filmmaking. This is the classic European structure where simple
reality is depicted, acutely replicating every detail. The immediate question
is can a film be completely objective? The answer is No. And that is not even
the intention. Court pays complete obedience to its own narrative form –
it shows you how boring the court proceedings are, that there is no ‘taarikh
pe taarikh’, the opposing advocates are neither enemies nor qaabil dosts
and more importantly, the manipulators do not operate in an obvious, bribing
way. The democracy is still working and that’s the sad part. It is a farce whose
prime-movers are not visible. These realities and observations lead to
deductions that can make you shiver if you’re looking closely. After Kamble
gets finally gets bail, he is trapped into another case. And a new (and
probably many) cases will follow him now.
There is an in-depth detailing of the
characters’ lives which might seem useless. But that is where Director
Chaitanya Tamhane is making larger statements. So if Vora is buying groceries
from a sophisticated mall, he has a car in which he plays jazz music and his
Gujarati parents are superrich, all of it is for a reason. The man hardly
charges fees for fighting the case, instead pays the hefty bail amount himself.
He can ‘afford’ to do such social service. Nutan, on the other hand, can’t,
because she is a middle class woman travelling in locals. And when you see
Sadavarte on a ‘pointless’ family trip, it needs to be observed how
unscientific is a man who needs to take rational decisions every day! In
totality, you also get a holistic picture of what disparities exist in our
society.
The camera work, with steady frames and
no camera movement, is realism transformed into a poignant cinematic language.
The chilling reality keeps mounting on you, subconsciously. The humour rises
out of the same reality, because we are so devoid of it. And in the process, we
realise that this is not about Narayan Kamble or the rebellious Dalit movement.
The Mohsins, the Bhaiyyas in Mumbai and every other minority makes
appearances. It is either made too fragile or it fights for its identity in a
questionable way. The temples, Hanuman mandals and much more tells you
what it is suppressed under. The blue colours, the chand-taras tell you
the defiant stances. And the names – Narayan, Vasudeo, Shankar...tell you their
wounded belonging.
Watch Court for a truly cinematic
experience. Through its craft and genuineness, it is bound to make you
restless.
m4m says: A Must Watch
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