The first thing to note about Judgementall
Hai Kya is that Sriram Raghavan features in
the opening credits. The director of the deliciously
twisted Andhadhun is a definite influence
on this film – especially the first hour.
Director Prakash Kovelamudi takes the Raghavanesque
route of a murder, two suspects, investigating
cops. And of course, nothing is
what it seems.
Because our point of view comes from Bobby
Batliwala Grewal who is an unreliable narrator.
The film begins with her childhood - Bobby
is an imaginative but disoriented little girl
who sees her father routinely abuse her mother.
The childhood trauma shapes her worldview.
As an adult, Bobby marches to the beat of
a different drummer. She’s unapologetically
different with no filters or niceties. Her
sharp edges are revealed in everything – including
her abrupt manner and those distinctive sunglasses.
When someone asks about friends, she just says,
"Zaroorat nahi hai." Bobby’s mansik bimari
is identified as acute psychosis and dissociative
identity disorder. The Cleveland Clinic describes
this as a mental illness that involves disruption
or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity
and/or perception.
Bobby of course couldn’t be bothered. She
throws away her meds and starts lusting after
her hunky, married tenant. Bobby’s job,
as a voice artist, further fuels her flights
of fantasy. She becomes the characters she
dubs for - imagining entire scenarios, photo-shopping
herself into them or play acting them in a
photo studio. In short, Bobby is a fascinating,
full-blown mess. And if you still don’t
get how complex her headspace is, writer Kanika
Dhillon underlines it with a pet – Bobby
has a black cat named 'Panoti' or 'unlucky'.
What’s wonderful is that Kangana Ranaut
and Kanika aren’t timid about Bobby’s
messiness. They don’t feel any pressure
to make her likable. She’s unreasonable
and difficult. Prakash and DOP Pankaj Kumar
skilfully immerse us in her fractured psyche
with oversaturated colors and skewed frames.
When Bobby applies lipstick, we see her reflection
in three mirrors because she is multiple personalities.
The background score by Daniel B. George and
sound design by PM Satheesh and Manoj M Goswami
accentuates this further – every tremor is
amplified and potentially threatening. The
memorable R. D. Burman song 'Duniya Mein Logon
Ko' is used to great effect. This is Bobby’s
world and she demands that we don’t measure
her by standard yardsticks. There’s a lovely
moment in which she says, with frustration,
"Artist hoon main, artist."
Kangana commits to being Bobby. It’s not
an effortless performance but it’s a full-bodied one.
Kangana has traversed this road often
– in her debut film Gangster, her character
Simran commits suicide. Soon after, she played
the schizophrenic Sana in Woh Lamhe who also
slits her wrists. And later, Shonali in Fashion,
a coked-up supermodel, who ends up homeless.
But unlike these characters, Bobby is fierce.
She drives the narrative with her desires
and her determination to see justice done.
Prakash and Kanika want us to admire the beauty
of her singular mind and Kangana compels us
to root for Bobby even when she is at her
most impenetrable. If Kangana had faltered,
this film would have collapsed. But she admirably
stays the course.
Rajkummar Rao is a worthy sparring partner.
Keshav, like Bobby, is unreliable. Rajkummar
layers his performance so we connect with
Keshav's exasperation at dealing with Bobby but
we also sense that something’s not quite
right. There’s a real pleasure in watching
these terrific actors play off each other.
And they have solid support with Satish Kaushik,
Brijendra Kala, Amrita Puri and Hussain Dalal,
who's really good as Bobby’s tragi-comic boyfriend.
Hindi cinema has an extremely dodgy record
of depicting mental illness.
Judgementall Hai Kya comes with an empathetic gaze, which is a big step forward.
The ambition of the story – both in content and style – is very exciting.
But Kanika’s screenplays seem to suffer from the soft belly syndrome.
Manmarziyaan, Kedarnath and now Judgementall Hai Kya
exert a solid grip in the first hour
but in the second, the plotting becomes unsteady.
Here, the narrative shifts to London, where
Bobby goes to be the understudy for Sita in
a play, which is a reinterpretation of the
Ramayana from Sita’s point of view. This
strand feels more like a convenient plot device
rather than an organic development. The thriller
aspect gets overshadowed by messaging. In
an effort to tie up the narrative strands,
the writing also becomes simplistic and eventually,
the big reveal feels implausible and forced.
So, Judgementall Hai Kya dips and soars. Like
Bobby, the film can be exhausting.
But like her, it’s also a true blue original.
And you should give it a shot.
