Feature Film National Award: Why Court gets my vote

If there is one thing that every Indian should do next month, it is to take a break from the Indian Premier League and step out to watch Chaitanya Tamhane's stellar debut film, Court, which releases on April 17. Having seen it twice already, it is a film which wows furthermore with every viewing. The multilingual film is unlike any Indian court drama viewers have seen. It doesn't have a lawyer yelling "Taareekh pe taareekh" or a judge saying "Order!" or even a witness narrating a sob story. Without the expected melodramatic tropes, audiences are still guaranteed a riveting watch. That's largely because Tamhane's script is subtle, taut, well-researched and rich on details. His presentation of the case itself is real, straightforward and quiet, almost as if he is a spectator watching the proceedings.

It's no surprise that the film has won 17 international awards already, earning as much if not more critical acclaim as other festival favourites, The Lunchbox and Ship of Theseus (2013). Like the latter, Court also won the Best Feature Film award and also has its producer, Vivek Gomber, featuring as an actor.

The case that Gomber's lawyer finds himself occupied with is a tricky, fascinating one. Narayan Kamble, a Dalit rights activist-poet-singer, is accused of abetting the suicide of a manhole cleaner, a man he is never met. The police's contention is that a line from his lyrics compelled the man to take the drastic action. Tamhane doesn't take sides or make moral declarations or comment on the injustices of the world. He treats his audience intelligently, allowing them to make a judgement of their own through the unfolding events, which look at how a section of law can be interpreted to suit one's interest.  

But Tamhane's biggest accomplishment is that he doesn't just hook viewers to the fate of the accused but also gives us a glimpse of the daily lives and personal spaces of the key parties involved in the case. There's Geetanjali Kulkarni's public prosecutor, a Maharashtrian mother of two with a diabetic husband, and the judge, for whom Tamhane comes up with perhaps the most fascinating portrait. By showing the ordinary selves of his film's heroes is just one of the many accomplishments of Tamhane's extraordinary film.