Silence, the Court is in Session !!!

The two events this week which generated opposite feelings for the Honorable Courts were the Acquittal of the reigning Superstar of Bollywood  and the Defiance of Supreme Court's orders on jallikattu.  In one case,  the prosecution could not press a point effectively and in the other, the public sentiments overruled the law. 

We have an enigmatic relationship with law. While we want to be on the right side of law and want it to be upheld, we are afraid of courts, their procedures and their outcome. This love-hate syndrome is also reflected in hindi films which have been depicting courts since a long time, mostly in a cosmetic sense. 

So, let's explore how Bollywood looked at Courts down the years in terms of stories having a legal tangle, court-room dramas and songs depicting courts and law.

One of the earliest film to depict a legal dilemma was Pukar 1939 which underlined the Mughal sense of justice. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"  was the prevalent motto and when the Emperor Jehangir  finds that the Empress has killed a washerman , what is to be done? Hang the Queen? What justice did Jehangir mete out? He told the aggrieved widow, ‘The Empress killed your husband. You kill the Empress’s husband’ !

Listen to the song the Empress sings while in confinement.

Two films in the 40s touched upon the position of the law, each in separate eras. Ram Rajya in 1943 questioned ‘Kya yehi Ram Durbar, kahan vaidehi…?’ , referring to the judgemental Ram banishing Sita.

Shaheed (1948 ) was about the British manner of justice through  a memorable performance by Chandramohan, who thundered ," ‘You did not spare your own King Charles –tried him for sedition, sentenced him to death and hanged him”. Whether this was an attack on imperialism or euologising British fairness is for the audience to discern.

This song goes out for the innumerable victims of British travesty of justice in pre-Independence India.  

                                   

Awara was a popular romantic film which had the backdrop of a judge meting out injustice to his wife ( on the lines of Lord Rama) and had many  powerful court-room scenes. In one of the best scenes, the  judge tells Nargis in the court room, ‘Kanoon kisi dil ko nahin maanta’ and Nargis (Rita was her name in the film) says, ‘Judge Sahib, dil bhi kisi kanoon ko nahin maanta’

The film was a super hit.

While the narrative  in Bollywood often boiled down to a court-scene in which the protagonist ( often framed maliciously) was acquitted ( ba-izzat bari kiya jaata hai !) , the lyricists were also weaving their own yarn. Check out this song, containg all possible legal terminology,  from the social family drama Ghar Sansar 1958, in which the bhabhi and devar have , through this song indicated that a legal battle is in the offing !

Bhabhi kare appeal aur devar bane vakeel, muqaddama jeetega... 

The Bollywood of song and dance was its first song-less film released Kanoon 1960. A hard core legal fight presented  a case against capital punishment putting up the argument that  “a thousand criminals may go unpunished, but an innocent man should never be punished  because if at a later date it is discovered that he was innocent, he cannot be brought back to life".

Despite the odd realistic court room depiction, the usual hindi film of the 70s has a lot of dialogues such as  “Order order!”, “Kanoon andha hota hai!”“Geeta pe haath rakh kar kasam khaiye" and “Adalat is nateeje pe pahunchi hai…..”. From hard-hitting to clever, theatrical to emotional, the on-screen courtroom trials have  spectators asking for more. 

The songs also have the mention of courts, occasionally and more so , supeficially 

In Eighties, we had a flurry of  titles of  films having  Kanoon ( Kanoon Apna apna, Kanoon Kya Karega and many other). At last count, more than 20 films have had titles having Kanoon, most of them dealing with justice of the vigilante kind !

The early 80s saw the release of an unabashedly titllating crime film Insaaf ka Tarazu, in which there were trial scenes following rape of the protagonist and her sister. While the brutal cross-examination of the rape victim was shown to stun the audience, the film fell short of a serious statement on legal issues relating to defence and prosecution in such type of cases, owing to commercial interests of the producer-director. The lyricist Sahir, however came up with a hard-hitting critique of the legal system through this song.

insaaf ka tarazu jo haath me uthaye
zurmon ko theek toley, zurmon ko theek toley 
aisa na ho ke kal ka itihaashkar boley
"mujrim se bhi zyada,  munsif ne zulm dhaaya"

Two small budget films in 80s focussed on the legal options before the common man and in the event of his being a member of jury !

 I am referring to that gem of a movie Ek ruka hua faisla, in which one jury member is able to convince the other 11 to his  point of view in  a charged environment of a jury room.

"Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho",  Saeed Akhtar Mirza 's art film takes a satirical look at the cases stretched in the court rooms for decades. While plaintiffs lose all hope and money,  the corrupt run free,thanks to their costly lawyers.

A  bitter realistic scenario, regrettably.

This is a rarely available song " haaye re muqaddama" from Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho.

The mention of 1993 film Damini is essential because of the one dialogue "taareekh pe taareekh, taareekh pe taareekh", apart from the many court-room scene pitting Sunny Deol's David against Amrish Puri's Goliath.

Similarly, Shaurya (2008) deserves a special mention as it dealt in the procedures of court martial ( rarely attempted in Bollywood) and the defence of the undefensible.

Finally, in one of the most realistic depiction of current Indian judicial scene, in 2013 film  Jolly LLB ( whose sequel is round the corner) , we have been witness to   the fight of innocent wage earners trying to snatch  justice from the jaws of  monopolistic rich of  the judicial world.

Here's wishing that the common man gets justice, in good time and at an affordable cost. 

Hum honge kaamyaab !