‘Court: State Vs. A Nobody’ has been hyped to the skies by presenter Natural Star Nani. Since the makers have almost described the movie as groundbreaking, expectations have been high. A day ahead of its theatrical release, we hereby bring you a review of the courtroom drama.
Telugu Funda’s reval of the basic premise:
Chandu (Harsh Roshan) is a college dropout who works hard wearing multiple hats. The 20-something, despite his humble background and living in a hut, wants to establish an event management company. His sincerity and personality impress Jabili (Sridevi), the single child of a high-caste woman (Rohini). While Jabili’s mother is good-natured, her hot-headed, casteist uncle Mangapati (Sivaji) wants to cruelly end the love story because he is obsessed with the family honour. Since Jabili is a minor, provisions of the POCSO Act are invoked against Chandu, setting the stage for his damnation.
In comes the selfless, duty-minded lawyer Surya Teja (Priyadarshi Pulikonda) at the nick of the moment. Teja’s arguments turn the fabricated case upside down.
Telugu Funda’s take on the Performances:
- Priyadarshi: He makes his smart character believable. When he makes clever arguments, we buy them because they don’t seem rehearsed.
- Sivaji: The actor became popular in the early 2000s after Pawan Kalyan’s Kushi. While he has been away from the big screen for many years, Court could kick off his second innings. He is commendable as a terrible casteist, honour-obsessed, hate-worthy patriarch.
- Hash Roshan and Sridevi: The former’s talent is well-known. He is easily among the best artists in the making. Sridevi is good as well.
- Harshavardhan: The Amrutham fame actor doesn’t get the trick behind negative roles. He is usually good when it comes to comedy but tends to become excessive while playing cunning roles.
- Sai Kumar and others: Aptly cast.
Telugu Funda’s take on the Technical Departments:
The music, cinematography, and editing are purely functional. Vijay Bulganin’s background score attempts to create tension through borrowed musical styles but it largely fails. There is no wow factor anywhere. Malayalam films made on small budgets tend to achieve greater sophistication. Anyways, Court is not a typical big-budget movie. Nani and Co. must be appreciated for even daring to make a courtroom drama in the era of thinning theatrical footfalls.
Telugu Funda’s Analysis:
The film follows a non-linear narrative path. The lawyers are introduced first (Sai Kumar plays Mohan Rao, under whom Priyadarshi’s Teja works), we get to learn the kind of efforts Teja puts in to understand cases, so on and so forth. Types of cases (financial fraud, cheque bounce, eve teasing, etc) are not hurled around; the characters use those terms like professionals. When Mohan Rao teases Teja with the trolley problem in Ethics (it is a thought experiment about a fictional scenario in which an onlooker has the choice to save 5 people in danger of being hit by a trolley, by diverting the trolley to kill just 1 person), you wonder if there are more grey characters in the film than you assume. But the narrative is not that complicated.
In a pre-release chit-chat video, Sivaji, Priyadarshi, Rohini and others discussed Mangapathi. Is Mangapathi bad or grey? Is he an outright villain or a patriarch who loves his family too much? Sivaji’s answer implied that he is pragmatic and justified in his actions from a family honour perspective. But the film doesn’t take that position. He is a shameless, incorrigible antagonist even if you factor in his ignorance with respect to what transpired between two key characters.
The love track is run-of-the-mill largely. Writer-director Ram Jagadeesh takes the safe route of showing Chandu as a typical slum boy who doesn’t listen to his dad’s admonitions. His mother is typically doting. Thankfully, these routine elements don’t derail the first half completely. Court is essentially a courtroom drama and so, the viewer knows he has to wait for the second half.
The second half, despite minor flaws, delivers a bang for the buck. While the defence side’s arguments are not out of the ordinary, the case keeps the viewer invested throughout. Since a sensitive law like the POCSO Act forms the basis for the case, there is an element of novelty.
Telugu Funda’s Verdict:
Despite a conventional love track and functional technical aspects, ‘Court: State Vs. A Nobody’ thrives on solid performances and an engaging courtroom drama.
Rating: 3
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