Review of Court (2015) by Aditya M — 03 Sep 2015

Towards the end of Chaitanya Tamhane's 'Court', we see a large family dancing around a bonfire during a weekend getaway. In most movies,a scene like this would be carelessly directed and feature everybody on screen dancing with furious and unrealistic enthusiasm. Not in this film. As my eye wandered around the screen, I noticed something wonderful. While a few boisterous uncles monopolized the revelry, a number of the quieter and shier family members awkwardly hung around the edge of the gathering, exactly as you might expect to see in real life. This attention to detail in even the most minor of scenes is what makes 'Court' so special.

The film is a courtroom drama, but it doesn't subscribe to any of the cliches that jump to your mind when you hear that phrase. An activist is charged with singing an inflammatory song that allegedly caused a sewage worker to commit suicide, and we follow his lawyers attempts to defend him. The film's realism, ironically, is surprising. I went from eagerly waiting to see what would happen next to feeling that I had known all along that it would happen. This achievement of a sense of inevitability without predictability is a terrific storytelling accomplishment.

The film's editing is its only flaw. It occasionally deviates from its main narrative to follow its various characters as they go about their daily activities. For example, we see the prosecutor going home and cooking for her family, the defender visiting a bar with friends, and the judge going on vacation. These scenes are meant both to humanize these characters and also make various suggestions on Indian society, but they don't quite click and end up feeling unnecessary. Nevertheless, this is the blemish that calls attention to the work of art around it.