The struggling lawyer wants to earn his two minutes of fame through a petition he’s filed. But the stern judge in front of him wants to give him a spelling lesson. “You have spelt appeal as apple and written prostitution in place of prosecution. Where did you study law,” the judge asks. The lawyer stutters, “Meerut Law College.”

The scene from the recent release Jolly LLB is not going down well in the western Uttar Pradesh city.

“This is the oldest law college in northern India,” says K.K. Mittal, associate professor, department of legal studies, Meerut College. “Our students have consistently got selected to the Judicial Services. Several of them are judges in the higher courts,” he adds.

Angry lawyers in Meerut — unhappy about the way the lead protagonist, a lawyer from Meerut, has been depicted in the film — had demanded the film be banned. “I will raise a voice whenever a lawyer is shown in a poor light in films,” says Shilpesh Choudhary, advocate, Rohini district court, who studied law in Meerut. He, along with a few other lawyers, recently approached the Delhi High Court and then the Supreme Court urging that the Arshad Warsi-starrer be banned. His plea was rejected by the apex court with a straight verdict: “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.”

The controversy may be over, but it has turned the arc lights on cinema and lawyers.

Like other stereotypes in Bollywood, lawyers have often been caricatured in films. A cop will always arrive late at a crime scene; a doctor will always ask the relatives of his patient to have faith in God; and a judge will always be shown as saying “Order, order, order,” as he bangs his gavel to warn noisemakers in his courtroom.

“Who uses the gavel? I am yet to see any judge of a lower or a higher court use it,” scoffs Akhileshwar Dayal, senior advocate, district and sessions court, Meerut. “Hindi cinema is far removed from reality when it comes to depicting courtroom scenes,” Dayal adds.

But things have changed with Jolly LLB, he says, a view seconded by critics. The film, many believe, comes close to honestly depicting the functioning of courts. “Spelling errors do happen in petitions and a young lawyer often gets chided by the judge for mistakes,” says Tarun Sharma, joint secretary, district bar association, Meerut. “I am rather ashamed that my peers protested against Jolly LLB,” he adds.

COURT JESTERS: A poster of Jolly LLB

Over the years, the role of lawyers in cinema has been taking a more realistic shape. But Hindi cinema is not known for depicting power-packed courtroom dramas, barring a few exceptions. The 1963 film Yeh Rastey Hain Pyar Ke, directed by R.K. Nayyar, was one of the few that focused on a court case. The film was based on the famous K.M. Nanavati trial. Nanavati was a naval commander who was tried for the murder of his wife’s paramour in 1959.

The 1993 film Damini showed Sunny Deol as a hot-blooded lawyer who fights for justice for a gang rape victim. Some recent films — such as Oh My God and Kyunki Main Jhooth Nahin Bolta — have had courtroom scenes, but the proceedings have often been exaggerated.

But Jolly LLB seems to have struck a chord. In the film, Arshad Warsi is a novice lawyer from Meerut who is pitted against Boman Irani, a renowned senior advocate. The two-hour-long courtroom drama deals with the trial proceedings of a hit-and-run case involving an industrialist’s grandson. “Everything seemed so real,” says Monica Sen (name changed), who has been going to lower courts in Delhi regularly over her sister’s messy divorce case. “I have seen all this first-hand,” she says.

“Courtrooms are funny places — hilarious things happen there,” says the film’s writer-director, Subhash Kapoor, who spent a few months doing the rounds of courts before writing his script. “I visited a few lower courts in Delhi and the Meerut district court. I studied how lawyers behaved, how they addressed the judges and how cases were fought,” Kapoor says.

Many lawyers are happy with the film because they believe it ushers in change. “For once there are scenes which show how an actual trial proceeds. It also shows two types of lawyers — a suave Harvard-returned one and a rustic character. Both co-exist in our courtrooms,” Dayal points out.

So far, lawyers were mostly portrayed as loud and crooked on the big screen. The real-life Indian lawyer — now among the richest and most envied professionals in the country — is seldom depicted realistically. Nor are courtroom proceedings shown honestly. “I can barely recollect any movie that has dealt with extensive court proceedings,” says Neeraj Kishen Kaul, senior advocate, Supreme Court. Kaul, who appeared as a counsel for the production house Fox Star Studio, makers of Jolly LLB, also argues that the film’s scenes are the creative expressions of the filmmaker.

With realistic films slowly making their mark in Bollywood, the legal fraternity wants filmmakers to take a cue from their Western counterparts — especially Hollywood, which has been dealing with lawyers and cases most effectively for long. “Look at movies such as Philadelphia or A Few Good Men. They depict the legal system there the way it is,” says Sharma of the Meerut bar association.

Indeed, the system in India too has undergone change over the years. If two or three decades ago, the law was seen as the preserve of those with a shady past or a political future, today the field is a respectable goldmine.

“Corporate law is the biggest attraction,” says Kaul. “And there’s a certain thrill attached to being a criminal lawyer. Judicial activism shows that it’s not a place meant only for those keen on making money,” he points out. “Today’s students are also watching international TV shows such as Suits, Ally McBeal and Boston Legal. They know what the real judicial world is all about,” adds Dayal.

Bollywood too may soon start looking at the Indian legal system from close quarters. Justice may be blind, but some filmmakers are slowly opening their eyes.