Review for JAI BHIM:
•Language: TAMIL.
•Duration: 164 MINUTES.
•Genre: LEGAL DRAMA.
• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.
• STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEOS.
•POSITIVES:
1: DIRECTION.
2: STORY, SCREENPLAY & DIALOGUES.
3:.PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS.
4: MUSIC AND BACKGROUND SCORE.
5: CINEMATOGRAPHY.
6: EDITING.
•NEGATIVES:
NOTHING TO MENTION.
•ONE WORD: An authentic and bold portrayal of discrimination, truly a must-watch.
•STORY IDEA:
Jail Bhim tells the story of Sengenni (Lijomol) and Raja Kannu (Manikandan) who are happily married from the Irular Tribe (Scheduled Tribes). One day a theft that happened at a rich landlord house makes Rajakannu and his family members as false accused thieves, soon they are arrested for a false case of robbery. The local police are pressurised from higher ranks to solve the case immediately so without any form of proper evidence Raja Kannu and his family gets arrested and they are forcefully tortured brutally in police custody. They strongly claim that they are innocent but without any means of kindness, they are tortured throughout the day and night. Soon three of the men who are labelled as accused gets missing from the police custody. So Sengenni with the help of some persons approaches Chandru (Suriya) who is an advocate who fights for human rights and justice. With the help of Chandru and judicial law will Sengenni be able to find his husband and her family relatives is the rest of the story of the film.
•DETAIL AND IN-DEPTH REVIEW:
Jai Bhim is directed by T. J. Gnanavel, who also handles the story, screenplay, and dialogues. The film is produced by Suriya and Jyothika under their production company called 2D Entertainment. The film is now streaming through Amazon Prime Videos with a running time of 164 Minutes. The movie comes under the languages of Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada.
As we are living in the modern 2021 year the atrocities of religious caste belief and caste discrimination still exist. From the studying school to the working place much unfair consideration and partiality are happening to surpass the right of an individual. So when looking about the past to the 90’s period how society treated the minor communities is hard and tough to think. The film Jai Bhim is a brilliant portrayal of caste discrimination, based on a real event that happened in 1995. When the movie was announced with the first look poster I thought it would be a regular hero savior film but while watching I was stunned to see the brilliant making with the avoidance of regular heroic cliches. It’s a movie that is equally balanced giving the right importance to every actor and also giving importance to the story.
The whole making and direction held by T. J. Gnanavel deserve huge applause, the kind of method he used to uplift the movie from the very beginning till the end was having the right momentum without causing any form of off-balance. The film begins with the proper opening, taking enough time to introduce the world of the main characters. The first thirty minutes of the movie shows the living of Sengenni and Rajakannu, the way they live, their way of income, their hard work, society neglecting them in the name of caste, etc was shown authentically so it makes a proper connection for the viewers to understand and feel their harsh life and pain. When the movie touches down to the main plot the aspect of the film began to change, from the drama the film enters into a thriller mood, the changing of the pattern with the crucial past incidents makes the movie completely engaging. Like I said when the movie is on the thriller backdrop many events and occurrences are happening to connect the past and present scenarios so none of these connecting elements goes flattered, everything was shown perfectly to maintain the equilibrium. When something new is happening to reveal the truth viewers are offered with many surprising twists and turns. So while watching one will be hooked on the premise, which also makes wonder and eager to know what is next.
The screenplay was excellently written, the building of suspense was the most I liked in the writing of T. J. Gnanavel. The last one hour of the film is like a fest filled with many surprising elements, how they investigate, how they find the facts, what all they do to bury the truth was captivating to watch. The courtroom scenes were neatly written and thoughtfully made, the heroic gimmicks like advocate as a hero bursting out unnecessarily, showcasing his body power to fight against villains, and giving him unnecessary punch dialogues was completely avoided. What we can see and hear in a real courtroom was exhibited like real-life and its executions by the director were genuine. Also, the arguments and debate between the two layers was having a close reality, equal pace was given to both of them. On the other hand, the emotional scenes were written out amazingly, every viewer will recognize and can realize their pain, their struggles, their injustice, and the discrimination. Also, it was very hard to watch the scenes on how the police officers treated them at the custody. How they beat them brutally, how they torture them and how they deny their rights was very painful to watch. The scenes containing a pregnant lady being beaten up by the police were unbearable to watch also humiliating an elder sister sexually in front of her brother and family members by the police officers was intolerable. It’s very shameful and sad that all these things had happened in real life, so the director had courageously brought out this truth without any form of fear and the execution of these scenes in writing and making was felt profound to an extreme level.
The emotions that are carried out in the movie are like an eye-opener. The clear and mindset ideas of the director is seen here, from the very beginning a scene where a police officer separates the criminals based on caste was shocking to see, lower-caste individuals being separated by a police officer from higher caste without any hesitancy, criminals are discarded based on caste, made wonder me whether he is a human or not. Understanding the pain of Irulas community faced in the 1990 period is beyond reality, the director effectively revealed it in the whole film especially a scene containing the confession of many falsely accused people. The particular scene explains the confession that they have been only arrested because they are from lower communities made me wonder who gave them this job, such a disgrace to the whole police department. The sorrow and suffering of the central character Sengenni made tears to the eyes, the director had flawlessly made and written out the character to another level. Her love towards her husband, her fight, her belief in law and justice were written out genuinely, the character till the end takes the movie to the greatest level. The dialogues were also keen and terrific, the emotional dialogues will leave tears in the eyes. The strong dialogues lead by the character Chandru were thrilling, one of the dialogues saying “ The law is a weapon for my fight” points out the truth of this present society, like this, there were many dialogues relating to the injustice of the present society and unfair system. The dialogues containing the reference of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had given me goosebumps, if Gandhi and Nehru are shown B. R. Ambedkar must be shown, the director points out it, hats off. So all together Jai Bhim is a movie that speaks for the minority communities and the maker T. J. Gnanavel had made a successful job in showcasing it, his brilliance and the efforts he took deserve big thumbs up and huge applause.
The performance of the actors was outstanding, every actor who comes into the film had done a marvelous job. Lijomol as Senggeni did an extraordinary performance, I had previously seen her movies but this character showed her real acting skills. The way she performed was magical, understanding the pain of the character and delivering it to pass those sentiments was incredible. The emotional scenes were perfect without any errors, the brilliant timing on delivering the dialogue was also good, especially the climax scene where she speaks at a time with crying and anger made me wonderous. Her combination scene with Manikandan was romantic and when the struggle comes the care and affection of a loving wife were beautifully seen, along with Suriya she stole the show. Suriya as advocate Chandru shines throughout, what I liked most is his mannerism. The attitude and qualities of a daring advocate were seen on his whole performance. The emotion to help the poor and his belief in the judiciary law to bring justice was authentically undertaken by him without any fault. His courtroom scene was thrilling to watch and his stunning dialogue delivery during the court scenes was faultless, the way he presented as an advocate and how he cross-examined the witness was terrific. Manikandan as Raja Kannu also did a great job, though he is having a moderate dialogue his performance was extreme, the scenes where various police officers torturing him were distributing to watch because the way he showed his pain was shocking, felt no one should ever be in his position. Prakash Raj as IG. Perumalsamy did a good job, his seriousness and attitude of an I.G were matching without any errors. His combination of scenes with Suriya was wonderful, the ideologies both characters shared were promising for a better tomorrow. Rao Ramesh as AG. Ram Mohan was impressive, the first time seeing him as an advocate and he did a beat job as a senior advocate. The main three actors who did the police officers role did a remarkable job, the negative shade in their character was ruled out perfectly, cruel torture and harsh words showed their arrogance towards lower caste, three of them did their best to make themselves proper villains. The supporting roles of Rejisha Vijayan were fine, V. Jaya Prakash, M.S Bhashakr and Illavarasu, and Sibi Thomas also did total justice to their supportive roles.
The technical division of the film had done an honest job particularly the three divisions such as cinematography, editing, and music. The cinematography of S. R. Kathir was uplifting lustrously to set the totality and premise of the plot. The visuals were stunningly captured to pass the depth, largely the visuals of police torturing scenes against the falsely accused person were distributing and painful to watch because of the harsh reality, those scenes had great visuals to enact the real depth. The shots were rich for setting the premise of a courtroom, the various camera movements to capture the emotions of two advocates are effectively taken. The frames of rural village and the lighting techniques used for the night shots were also clean and perfect. The editing of Philomin Raj was sharp with the best cuts and transition, no shots were given any sort of mismatches, also the grading was accurate according to the scenes. The makeup department needs special mention, the strain and injury that we saw in the body of the crucial characters were felt original and the arrangement made by the art department for the courtroom scenes and also for the village huts were impressive. The music and background had helped the film and had taken the movie to the desired spot, the background score had given an extreme impact till the end. The perfect background tunes were made properly according to the scenes, during the emotional scenes the background score had boosted the sentimental vibe, one can feel the pain and struggle the characters facing. The BGM in the end after the final court scene was fantastic, those visuals with background scores will make your eyes weep. The song “Thala Kodhum” sung by Pradeep Kumar was melodious, the investigative visuals set for the scene had a perfect match with the track. The song “Power” sung by Arivu had given a small intro for the character Chandru played by Suriya and his lyrics were matching to set the rap mood.
So overall Jai Bhim is a must-watch movie that never should be missed, it’s a brilliant work that showcases a valuable fight for justice. The intelligent writing and clever direction from T. J. Gnanavel took the movie to an unimagainable wining level and the performance from Suriya and Lijomol makes this film a complete solid film of this year. After watching one can realize that for us Jai Bhim had raised many questions, like do and why do these types of caste discrimination still exist or is it a licensee to kill or torture anyone who is oppressed, kindly don’t miss this classical masterpiece.
•VERDICT: MUST WATCH
•RATING: 5/5
