'Jolly LLB 3' Review: Akshay Kumar & Arshad Warsi Spar in a Courtroom That Still Charms

The Puzzle of Two Protagonists

Subhash Kapoor’s central challenge was always going to be structural. How do you tell a story when your leads are not adversaries but parallel heroes? The first film had Arshad Warsi as the scrappy lawyer stumbling toward redemption. The second handed Akshay Kumar the same stage and let him run riot with his manic comic energy.

Both worked because the spotlight belonged to a single Jolly. In the third film, Kapoor has to create a rhythm where both can shine without stepping on each other’s punchlines.

He begins by pitting them against one another in Delhi. Their clashes are not ideological but domestic. Both are men trying to run households, scrape together fees, and deal with clients who are more absurd than threatening. It is here that the humor crackles. A parade of eccentric plaintiffs and defendants liven up the screen.

The cases are silly but infectious, and they give Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi opportunities to showcase their contrasting comedic styles. Kumar, physical and over the top, knows how to wring laughs from a chair tumble or an eyebrow twitch. Warsi, subtle and dry, works through pauses, sighs, and his quietly incredulous expressions. The two do not cancel each other out. They exist as comic counterpoints, and it is fun to watch them jostle for rhythm.

From a Suicide to a Struggle

The frivolity ends abruptly with the film’s real conflict. A farmer takes his life, crushed under the weight of exploitation. His widow, played with quiet intensity, refuses to disappear into silence. She demands justice, and her fight becomes the spine of the narrative.

Kapoor does not claim this as a faithful retelling, but the case echoes the Bhatta Parsaul land acquisition controversy that shook Uttar Pradesh in 2011.

This pivot is gutsy. Farming suicides are an ongoing national wound, and Kapoor anchors his drama in this reality. The courtroom becomes the stage where systemic cruelty is interrogated. Farmers pitted against industrialists. Agriculture clashing with unchecked globalization.

A village resisting the machinery of capital. The film does not invent new arguments, but it repackages them in a way that remains watchable. The widow’s grief humanizes what could otherwise become abstract economics. It is her anguish that forces the Jollys to care, and eventually to collaborate.

Where the Courtroom Still Wins

Kapoor has always known how to choreograph a courtroom. The hearings in Jolly LLB 3 may not have the sting of the original, but they are still the film’s crown jewel. The rhythm is precise. Arguments rise like arias, objections slice through them, and the judge’s interjections bring the perfect comic relief.

There is a clarity to how evidence is introduced and challenged. Unlike many legal dramas that drown in melodrama, Kapoor keeps the debates taut and believable.

Both Jollys get their big hero moments here. Kumar delivers his lines like punches, sometimes theatrical, sometimes heartfelt. Warsi slips in with quieter but equally effective deliveries, proving that understatement can carry as much weight as bombast.

Their dueling monologues feel designed to please their fan bases, but to Kapoor’s credit, they rarely feel artificial. Even when the screenplay stretches credibility, the energy of the courtroom rescues it.

The Duo That Carries the Show

If this franchise is a cricket match, Kumar is the flamboyant batsman smashing sixes while Warsi is the steady anchor keeping the innings alive. Together they form a partnership that holds the film together even when the screenplay wobbles.

Kumar is in his comfort zone. His exaggerated comic bits, his ability to turn even a serious argument into entertainment, and his flair for physical comedy dominate the lighter sections. He is the showman who makes even repetitive jokes feel fresh with sheer conviction.

Warsi, on the other hand, is all about restraint. His timing is impeccable, and he knows when to let silence do the talking. If Kumar is all fireworks, Warsi is the spark that lingers. The balance between them is not always perfect, but when they click, the chemistry is undeniable.

A Villain Without Teeth

A courtroom drama lives or dies by its antagonist. The first film had Boman Irani, deliciously arrogant. The second had Annu Kapoor, menacing and sharp. Jolly LLB 3 offers Gajraj Rao as industrialist Khetan Saab. On paper, it should work.

Rao is a superb actor, capable of menace and nuance. But the script gives him little to bite into. He is reduced to caricature, the archetype of a greedy tycoon. His lines are generic, his motivations thin. He snarls, he smirks, but he never terrifies.

The problem is not Rao’s performance but the writing. Without a truly formidable villain, the Jollys’ victories feel smaller. The stakes are undermined. It is like watching superheroes fight a half-powered opponent. You cheer, but you never doubt the outcome.

A courtroom is only as exciting as its adversary, and here the adversary feels like a shadow of what could have been.

The Ensemble That Deserved More

One of the joys of the Jolly LLB series has always been its side characters. They ground the narrative and provide unexpected humor or heart. In this installment, the ensemble feels uneven.

Huma Qureshi and Amrita Rao are both criminally underused. They appear in fleeting scenes that add little to the plot. Their characters, once lively, are now ornamental. A bizarre restaurant sequence involving them feels tacked on, as though inserted from a different film.

Seema Biswas, however, shines. Though her role is limited, she embodies the suffering mother with dignity and gravitas. It is heartening to see her on screen again.

Ram Kapoor delivers one of the film’s standout moments. His courtroom monologue, measured yet powerful, injects real dramatic heft into the proceedings.

And then there is Saurabh Shukla, the franchise’s secret weapon. His Judge Tripathi is once again the highlight. He is cranky, tender, hilarious, and authoritative all at once. Shukla has perfected this role to the point where the film almost bends around him. Without him, Jolly LLB 3 would collapse. With him, it soars in bursts.