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The real thing

Mrudula Rajyadhyaksha

Hansal Mehta.

If you are quite through with the brassy excesses of what now proudly passes for "commercial cinema", if you think people on screen shouldn't make a habit of groaning and looking like they got conked by a ketchup bottle, if you think two people eyeballing each other at six inches under the benign eye of a soft focus lens is no great shakes, then welcome, oh welcome, to the real world.

You have the odd Satya at the upper end of the cost spectrum and films like Hyderabad Blues and Jayate at the lower. Jayate, you might well ask. Jayate??

Yup, Jayate, the debut film for director Hansal Mehta, who cut his teeth on television and which is produced by R V Pandit of Maachis fame.

The storyline is based on the true story, that of a girl rendered comatose due to a doctor's negligence.

The case, filed by the girl's brother-in-law, is taken up by a first-time lawyer, Mohan Agashe (Sachin Khedekar). The doctor is backed by one of the biggest legal names in the business, Kapoor (Shakti Kapoor).

Kishore Kadam and Shilpa Shirodkar in Jayate. Click for bigger pic!

The rookie advocate gets so involved that he finally goes against the brother-in-law's advice that he withdraw the case and agree to a decent settlement. Standing by Mohan, though, is the man's wife, the girl's younger sister (Shilpa Shirodkar). For her pains, the woman is finally thrown out of the house by her husband.

The film is essentially about how David takes on Goliath and, in that sense, plays to the gallery. The storyline is its strength; otherwise, despite the promise, it's good in parts.

Hansal Mehta gets a great performance from Khedekar and Shirodkar, but the rest of the cast have just gone through the motions. Shakti Kapoor handles his role the way he does any other and so is most unconvincing as the hard and bright lawyer.

The film is a little slow, in places even a little boring. Tighter editing and sharper use of close-up may have helped. Drama is avoided even when the opportunity presents itself. That may even have been a good idea hadn't it hobbled the pace of the film.

But despite the shortcomings we mentioned, the film is worth the viewing, particularly for the attention given to detail. For example, unlike what happens in many commercial films, the crockery used by the small-time lawyer is cheaper than put out in the house of the big 'un.

Achyut Potdar and Sachin Khedekar in Jayate. Click for bigger pic!

Since it has that appalling brand, art cinema, on it, producer Pandit may have to distribute it himself. And Hansal is unwilling to take the easy way out.

"I can't add things that don't go with my subject or don't jell with the mood of the film. I've made it the way I thought was best," he says.

And the music. It wasn't all that catchy, we told him. At which he bridled.

L Subramaniam, he tells you, has given the music -- and very good music at that. But if we thought good music was only about raunchy numbers, his was not the film to see, he informs you.

Hansal also discourages talk that the big lawyer is modelled on Ram Jethmalani.

"That's not true," he tells us."There's no resemblance." Later, you learn that the film is only dedicated to that legal luminary.

Usually, you wouldn't give such a film a farthing's chance, but with the success of films like Satya and Hyderabad Blues, you wonder whether, despite the bleakness of the film, whether it stands a chance...