My Cousin Vinny | Pleasure Ride Indeed | The Critique

You mistakenly shoplifted a can of tuna. Police arrests you for murder. Murder actually took place and Police has eye-witnesses who identified you. What will you do? My Cousin Vinny tells you an interesting story. Billy and Stan are arrested for murder and being accessory to murder respectively in Alabama. With no money, they somehow manage to get an attorney whose qualification is taking six years to clear bar and experience of six weeks in handling personal injury. Mess, well, yes.

Vinny, the attorney, is cousin of Billy and is in a kind of situation. He tells some lofty lies to judge, is not able to grasp the procedure and has no trial experience. Plus, he has a girlfriend who is pretty, will marry him only after he win his first case and her clock is ticking. The judge is having a certain disdain for Northerners and is an old school guy. Vinny’s lack of respect, which is actually lack of knowledge rather, for court procedures is an eyesore for him. Billy and Stan are worried as their life depend on this case. In hostile South, they might be fried if held guilty.

Film works for multiple reason. Characters are funny. Vinny and Mona, his girlfriend, has an amazing chemistry. Both are knowledgeable but lack the conventional way to express it. Funny scenes which meant to provide burst of laughs turn out to be little gems of intellect at a later stage. Script is terrific to say the least. Courtroom demeanors are realistic. Real-life lawyers connected well with the story and presentation. Performances are good. Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei and Fred Gwynne, who plays judge, were amazing. Marisa won Academy for Best Supporting Actress.

My Cousin Vinny is a small delightful movie. Watch out for little moments and gestures. You will love it.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

  

The Exorcism of Emily Rose | Haunting Experience | The Critique

Some TV channel was showing this film while CSK was losing IPL finale to MI. Reluctantly, I decided to watch it because of the courtroom drama component rather than the horror thing. Well, by the morning, I forgot that I saw a courtroom drama. Horror was written all over my face. Literally.

Movie is about a Priest who conducts exorcism on a teenage girl Emily. She dies post failed attempt of the Roman ritual. Though it was done with consent, State charges Priest with Homicide due to negligence. Priest is provided with a lawyer who has a daunting task at her disposal – to prove occult practices in front of Jury. While she struggles to collect evidences, Priest insists on standing in court and testify. He wants to tell Emily’s story. The girl who fought six demons and was a martyr.

I slept at 1:30 AM. Nothing unusual for me. Sharp 3:00 AM, my sleep was interrupted by strange sounds. Electric fan was screeching. Water bottle on fell down from the table and water spilled on the floor. There were dogs barking outside my flat. I woke up, shaking and drenched in sweat. Yes, I was frightened to death and this is something pretty unusual as I hardly get scared of darkness or loneliness. Fan screeches every night and dogs bark when they see the security guard parading. Was there something going on? No. But the movie had a brilliant effect on me. Frankly, scared but enjoyed every bit of it.

Any movie which can have such an effect has to be good. I have never experienced this since Omen. Rest, watch and decide this well scripted and well portrayed film. For portrayal of Emily, Jennifer Carpenter deserves a standing ovation.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh      

Courtroom Dramas - Special Edition | Editor's Pen

Hi All,

 

Courtroom Dramas… the roaring voice of prosecution of defense, loopholes in law, the balance of judgment, the thump of ‘order-order’… they all seem to attract even the least of the cine-buffs. In this edition, we decided to have a look on courtroom dramas. Unlike previous takes on Genres over years, this year we focused on nuances of Courtroom Drama which makes them so popular.  

 

Analysis of courtroom dramas helped us understand the role prejudices play. In famous movie To Kill A Mocking Bird, A Cry In The Dark and Achanak, the judgment depended largely on how jury felt personally about the person in witness box. 12 Angry Men is a classic example where one need to get rid of personal opinions and prejudices. Judgment At Nuremberg challenges the very origin of a prejudice and shows how dangerous this human fallibility is. Similarly in Kudrat, we see that opinion for respected icon can act as a shield for their past. In the current political scenario, propaganda are leading to prejudices. We can see people declaring verdict even before charge sheet is filed. On a personal level, I don’t endorse it. We need rationality prevail.

 

Today is Ali’s birthday. Wishing him the best in life on behalf of entire TheReelMag team.      

 

Waiting for your comments.

 

Love

Sujoy

EK Ruka Hua Faisla-The Critique

I happened to watch ‘Ek Ruka Hua Faisla’ about an year back, with high expectations. After all, it is known for being Indian take on Sydney Lumet’s Fantastic directorial debut movie, 12 Angry Men. Also to ERHF’s advantage, i haven’t seen the original, which does not cloud my judgement and lets me assess the movie to its own merit.

As i just mentioned, previous experiences cloud our judgement. This forms the main theme of the movie. Does a person from lower class deserve to be given a benefit of doubt? Does a liar always lie or maybe in some situation a liar might also tell the truth?

Movie starts with judge, instructing 12 jurors to unanimously decide the fate of a slum dwelling boy accused of killing his father. All evidences point towards the boy. It seems like an open and shut case to the all of the jury. All but one juror. Juror 8 is not convinced, either of boy’s guilt or his innocence. You see, its matter of life and death, and there is no harm over going through evidence again.What follows is the discussion over boy’s guilt, and examining of all evidences.

Beauty of the film lies in the fact that on closer looks evidences are not fool proof, and jurors are not unbiased or specially interested in dispensing justice. How the judgement changes from unanimous guilt to unanimous doubt is fascinating to watch. Before this happens jurors must be confronted, and made to reason. Jurors must confront their own prejudices. Prejudices come in form of class prejudice, younger generation prejudice and plain non-chalance for a human life.

To flesh out the conflict, ERHF boasts of impressive performances from likes of Pankaj Kapoor, Annu Kapoor, KK Raina, in that order. Basu Chatterjee, controls his cast and performances with great skill. With most of the film shot in a room, Basu cleverly places his camera as to transport viewers into the same room. He makes us the thirteenth juror.

Ek Ruka Hua Faisla is undoubtedly a fine jury/courtroom drama made in India. It has made me curious about the original, which i think is one of the biggest compliment a remake can get.

Written By Ali Naqvi.

Understanding Courtroom Drama | Under Lens

What Exactly A Courtroom Drama Is? Courtrooms attract people. It is the place where an act of crime meets a logical conclusion. It is the place where everything is clinically dissected and truth is revealed. It is the place where justice is delivered. Courtrooms have been an important part of our literature. Remember Merchant Of Venice? Remember Panch Parmeshwar? Remember Julius Caesar? A story that deals with legal aspects of an action (usually in Act 1) in Act 2 and reaches a conclusion, traditionally holding the torch of justice, in Act 3 can define a courtroom drama in its generic form.

 

What Happens In A Courtroom Drama? In a courtroom drama, two opposite sides- prosecution and defense, analytically examine and cross examine the evidences and witnesses. The charges and accused’s stand is discussed. More than often, motive or rational behind the crime is discussed. Emotions flow and sometimes heated arguments forces judge to intervene. Not only people are in the box, even sometime law is judged. Sometimes, sanity of accused is questioned. Sometimes, validity of crime is questioned. Sometimes, morality of victim is questioned. Sometimes, the court is questioned.

 

Examples: 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Murder, A Cry In The Dark, A Few Good Men, Judgment at Nuremberg, Philadelphia, Qatl are rated high. Movies like To Kill A Mocking Bird, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Waqt, Awaara, Achanak revolve around court cases and hence are treated as Courtroom Dramas.

 

Fine Print: As the word says- Drama, a lot of what is shown is fiction. The bottom line is to tell an interesting story. As a result even the best of the courtroom dramas show misinterpretation of law. As a result, many misconceptions are promoted. For example, in 12 Angry Men it is shown that Juror 8 brings in a knife in the room and tells that he got it from a shop in the area where crime took place. This and Jury making assumptions based on personal observations (not put forward by lawyers) would have led to mistrial in a standard court.

Clinical Anatomy Of A Murder | Under Lens

Anatomy of a Murder is considered as text book for courtroom drama. Ranked #7^th in AFI's list of Top 10 Courtroom Dramas, movie broke many stereotypes. It also challenged many norms of the era. Even today, Anatomy of a Murder’s brilliance is unchallenged. Big question is, what’s so special about it?

 

Censor Censored: Censorship guidelines were rarely tricked so well. While, Director Producer Otto Preminger played within the limits, the language used along with strong graphic subtext was frowned upon. In courtroom, terminology used was realistic. It was very frank for the era. Apart from language used, the morality of characters and final outcome of the story challenged the standard where Good has to win.

 

Fine Print Of Laws: Usually courtroom dramas are spoiled by melodrama. Though emotions flow in witness box, it’s a rare commodity unlike what movies show. Anatomy of a Murder steer away from the cliché. Movie not only avoid excessive and unnatural display of emotions, it also strives more on circumstantial evidences. Anatomy of a Murder also touches some politically incorrect aspects of law without any inhibition. Lawyers coach the witness and creates impression on jury. Histrionics shown by lawyers on both the sides explores skills used in real courts. Anatomy of a Murder is well researched without prejudices. The fallibility of system was one of the highlights.

 

Grey Matter: Characters are grey, not white, not black. Morality, ethics and integrity are vague terms. Their definition depend more on perspective than being absolute. The lawyer ask his client to wear dress in accordance with what jury might approve of. Accused picks up a subtle hint and states his case. Lawyers design their case in order to influence the jury rather than focusing on justice. These ambiguities make them more interesting and more realistic.

 

Insanity Defense: Insanity, to be more precise irresistible impulse, is used as an excuse for crime. The way defense builds the case around these two words is remarkable. Different aspects like memory loss and rage are used to develop an infallible story. When challenged by prosecution based on opinion of a psychiatrist, the way defense destroys the stand is a pleasure.

 

In Conversation with Arun Purushothaman and Sujoy Ghosh

A Cry In The Dark | Prejudices And Justice | The Critique

Public opinion can influence judgments. Anybody who has an idea who Jesus was, will understand. A Cry In The Dark presents a similar situation where public opinion took precedence over truth and exposes the reliability of jury-system. Made in a docu-drama style, the movie hits hard on the role media plays in creating sensational news and affecting mindset of people involved. Based on Evil’s Angles written by  John Bryson is based on true story of Chamberlains.

 

Michael and Lindy are blessed with a girl child Azaria. They go on camping with bunch of friends. While they are enjoying their dinner, a cry is heard. As it turns out, a dingo is  suspected to have taken away their daughter. Distraught couple accept the fact and make peace with it. However, people around them smell some rot. How can a couple who lost their 2-month old daughter accept it as His wish? Rumors and malicious media reports start creating an anti-Chamberlains mood in court. Lindy, the prime suspect, decides against showing fake emotions to change the course of verdict in her direction. She stands by her beliefs irrespective of what follows.

 

Sam Neill had a difficult role to play. One reason was the emotion baggage this role carries and the second reason was that he was playing a role opposite to Meryl Streep. Sam Neill gave a performance which he must be very proud of. Meryl nails it again. The difficult part was the prejudice the character evokes. Even if you know the reality, it’s difficult to ‘not’ think like what people did. They believed that Lindy was guilty and at some point, you will endorse similar emotions. Her portrayal makes it very difficult to feel for the character and this is exactly what happened for Lindy. She carries the burden of cross and how well. Meryl Streep excelled, like always. The characters play their part so honestly you will almost sense a deja-vu. When the credits roll, you will realize what prejudices can do to justice.

 

Fred Schepisi clinical approach works brilliantly. Aided by a very well written book in the foundation, Fred uses a mix of different mediums of storytelling and blends documentary elements with drama so well that one might not notice the difference. Media as a character plays a strong role and the way it is developed is an example to follow. Rated at par with best in the genre, A Cry In The Dark is a movie that might fade away from memory but it might survive in nightmares. Such strong is the impact. Such strong were the performances.

 

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Judge Dan Haywood In Judgment at Nuremberg | Actor's Eye

Saw an awesome court room drama recently, “Judgment at Nuremberg”. Crisp script, nice characterization and some wonderful acting clubbed along with some hidden aural and visual hints made it a memorable experience. The story is about trial of four Nazi judges, for war crimes, by an Allies court lead by Americans.

 

Unlike many of the court room dramas I have seen till date, especially the ones from Bollywood which have either the prosecutor or the defense or the victims or some witness in the lead, this one has something new to offer where it deals with the turmoil and confusion of “Your Honour” during a trial.

 

Played by Spencer Tracy, the character, Chief Judge Dan Haywood, visits Germany for the first time and gets to learn about the culture, the people, the circumstances and about “The Germany” before, during and after the “Hitler” era. How Judge Haywood is influenced, is in turmoil and at times confused by the proceedings but yet remains truthful to the call of duty and gives a judgment based on the ultimate truth is what the script deals in. The character is soft at heart , who receives and gets love and respect in the course of time, when he is outside the court and at the same time he is also a person with strong will power and one who is firm about and stands for his decisions whether they please people around him or not. He is humble, he is down to earth and he is polite with ladies and he is also one who knows how to get the “order” right inside the court.

 

Judge Haywood in short has been shown to be the epitome of justice and Spencer Tracy, as usual, has done proper justice with the judge. The elegance through body language, the pride and authority through voice and the confusion through expressions he has depicted all and depicted all very well.  All in all a good character and a good performance in a well scripted and well directed movie makes it a pleasure to watch.

 

Written By: Gaurav Karmakar

Courtroom Dramas In Bollywood | Under Lens

1. Kudrat: Re-incarnation, crime-never-leaves-you and debt-versus-ethics conflict, Chetan Anand’s Kudrat had all of this. Son of a Zamindar – Janak Singh rapes a local girl Paro under influence of alcohol. Her fiancé Madhav comes to know about this and seeks revenge. In order to save his skin, he gets them murdered. The girl’s fiancé reborn as Mohan and gets Janak Singh patronage. Paro has reborn as Chandramukhi. As expected, they meet and learn about their past life. They decide to take Janak Singh to court. Movie is still remembered for its songs and brilliant performances by Rajesh Khanna and Raj Kumar.

 

2. Damini: Shekhar is a rich man who marries a poor girl Damini. His family reluctantly accepts her. But all hell broke loose when she witness Shekhar brother raping their maid and decides to lodge police complaint. As expected, in the first act, justice is not delivered. Damini’s real struggle begins as she is not ready to forfeit and is helped by Govind, a lawyer who is upset with the entire system. Stellar performances by Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Sheshadri and Amrish Puri backed a strong but melodramatic script. Movie is still remembered for its hard-hitting dialogues.

 

3. Mera Saaya: How will you react when a woman who looks like your wife comes and claims when you know that she is dead? Sunil Dutt has been a part of many courtroom dramas. Mera Saaya is one of the most memorable one. In a very difficult role of husband whose love died in front of him and now needs to take on a fraud, he excels. Sadhana, in twin role, play both the characters beautifully. One might wonder that she was heavily underrated as an actress.   

 

4. Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara: An agonizing tale of an old man who believes that he is responsible for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. Struck in a moment of his childhood, he is not able to see differentiate between reality and illusions. To save him, his daughter decides to take the trial to court. Anupam Kher and Urmila gave brilliant performances, may be next to their respective performances in Saransh and Pinjar.  Though the movie failed to impress BO, it remains a special film.

 

5. Awaara: Son is a convict while father is the judge. A cue drawn from Ramayan, Awaara tells story of a man (aptly name Raghunath) who disowns his wife when he doubts her loyalty. He believes that lineage is more important than the upbringing. His prejudice angers a criminal who decides to test his philosophy. When Raghunath disowns his wife, the criminal ensures that Raghunath’s child Raj follows path of crime. Raj ends up in court on multiple charges. Awaara is one of the most celebrated Hindi film. Intense performances, well-woven script and memorable music.