Kiran Ramakrishna

'Visaaranai', 'Paraiyerum Perumal', 'Karnan'. At one point, ‘Jai Bhim’ might sound like a repetitive rendezvous propaganda identical to the aforementioned movies to highlight the injustices meted out by the Cops and judiciary system to the oppressed castes. But as the screen time progresses, we realizes that it is more than just a propaganda. The movie sets the tone right away in the first scene where suspects are released from the jail and the cops asks the name of caste group to each suspect. Cops decide who should be let away and who shouldn’t, not based on their credibility, but their caste. Apologies for the spoiler, but no Tamil film has ever audaciously used caste group names as this one. The movie then moves to a very placid set-up where a harmless tribe called ‘Irula’ hunt for food. The source? Rats. Yes, little did we know that there actually exists a tribe which feeds on rats. Kudos to the writers again for sticking to the true event. With Suriya’s entry, it is pretty obvious that he shall be the larger-than-life savior for the trio tribe arrested for a theft case. Though the entry scene was quite screaming, Suriya’s role as Justice Chandru is kept true to the script. The director’s intent is pretty spot on when Sean Roldran uses only a five minute song to present the complete background on personality traits of Suriya. Quiet an adroit editing masterstroke. Moving on to performances, Manikandan delivers yet another splendid performance backed by empathy, generosity (in letting go of snakes) and helplessness. Suriya is his usual self, getting into the skin of real life Justice Chandru and playing a fearless, no-nonsense lawyer who takes on the whos-who of lawyers with the focused purpose of providing justice to the oppressed. A star of such a stature letting the main protagonists take lead is something to be applauded. Casting is another pillar of the movie, as one cannot pick and choose on who justified their roles and who didn’t. Even a Subathra Robert, who appears hardly in few scenes, makes a profound impact in the given role. Truth be said, the standout performance was delivered by Lijomol Jose. Sengani lingers in your mind more than anyone else in the movie. Her inevitable innocence, her powerlessness for police torture, her resolute stand for justice was beautifully portrayed. The scene where she walks away from police Jeep when offered a ride was jaw dropping! Screenplay is picture perfect, except that few scenes have extravagantly added ‘commercial’ elements to make the movie more thrilling and watchable. Court room drama sequences progressed in only one way, as we see opposition lawyers showing little strength in their quest to win. Guru Somasundharam has been blatantly underutilized as to what could’ve made an enthralling cat-and-mouse court encounter. The court scenes appear to unwind such that Suriya finds an answer to every doubt lingering in his mind without much of an endeavor. A handful of scenes have been purportedly shown to be brutal and barbarous to augment the anxiety of viewers. Moreover, since we have already observed police and oppressed caste brutalities in 'Visaaranai' and 'Paraiyerum Perumal', the novelty factor fades away and the impact is not as provoking as the former movies. However, if we consider the broader context of the movie, these flaws can be unmindfully disregarded. On balance, Jai Bhim is a principally engaging movie with knockout performances and an efficiently thought out screenplay and casting. With OTT release, the story is sure to reach international audiences.