South superstar Suriya-starrer Jai Bhim, which released digitally on Amazon Prime Video recently, garnered rave reviews from the audience. Written and directed by Tha. Se. Gnanavel, the film is a thought-provoking story inspired by the life of popular advocate and judge, Justice Chandru. It chronicles his fight for justice for the marginalised people in society and revolves around victims of derailed justice and police brutality.
When asked if he had any apprehensions of featuring in a film on a sensitive topic, Suriya, while speaking exclusively to Cinema Journal, responded, “Not really. I have done films that appreciate what the police have been doing for society. But we also wanted to look at the other side of the coin and the reality shook us. The movie is also about inspiring young lawyers and police that are determined to get justice and how they can correct the wrong. One person can be a disruptor. You cannot always trust the system and one person can prove if something needs to be corrected. We all loved the script and we shot during the ongoing pandemic because we wanted to tell this story.”
The film doesn’t portray Justice Chandru as a demi-god or follow the commercial hero template. Suriya says the team intended to only “showcase that such things are happening all over the nation with a lot of inequalities”. “The unwritten laws make the privileged very comfortable and the oppressed are forced to do certain things. When we become sensitive to such things, a change in thought will happen. We are rightly using the medium of cinema to bring forth these changes,” he signed off.
