Manithan (Tamil, 2016)

This film adapted from Subhash Kapoor’s Jolly LLB has been tweaked a little but the essence doesn’t get lost in Ahmed’s presentation of the court-room proceedings. The cohesive screenplay makes us stay focused even with a romance track running in parallel.

In terms of characters and performances, the ‘fire’ of Prakash Raj‘s Adiseshan and the ‘ice’ of Radharavi’s Judge Dhanapal strike a fine duel adding to some tense moments in the court and Udhayanidhi‘s Sakthi, though no match for the veterans’ shows, is still a commendable improvement if you consider his work in past films. The cameo played by the actor enacting Kamalakannan is a sweet surprise and works very well.

Even Hansika (surprisingly!) isn’t all that irritable with some finely worked portions, Aishwarya Rajesh as Jenni brings the needed emotional quotient and Vivek‘s wisecracks are enjoyable.

In Santhosh Narayanan‘s music, there are some fine melodies like Aval Kural and an international class theme bit which is too good elevating the film’s impact level.

Balaji’s editing makes a lot of fade out/fade in cuts and doesn’t try to do anything fancy. Madhi’s camerawork resonates the film’s theme to such an extent that you get to see the Court in almost all frames in the film!

The film takes its own time to build up and leads to a rather placid start. The comedy in these portions (before Sakthi heads to Chennai) don’t work too making one dread the direction the film might take.

The build-up to the senior Dhiwan goes futile as he doesn’t enter the picture in the crucial climax portions.