In 2009, Advocate Jagdish Tyagi (Arshad Warsi), also known as Jolly, is a Delhi-based lawyer living with his sister's husband, Pratap (Manoj Pahwa), and is also in a relationship with Sandhya (Amrita Rao). He happens to witness prominent criminal defense lawyer, Advocate Tejinder Rajpal (Boman Irani), successfully defend Rahul Dewan (Rajeev Siddharth), a boy from a high-society family in a sessions court, who has been accused of drunk driving his Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, and causing the deaths of six labourers sleeping on the footpath six months ago. Jolly, desperate for money and fame, decides to pursue the case and files a PIL in the court against Rahul Dewan. Jolly's neighbour, Kaul Saab (Ramesh Deo), gifts him his office as a chamber, because Kaul Saab's daughter was raped and murdered by a politician's son, who was also successfully defended by Rajpal. Kaul Saab takes this to be an opportunity to receive some justice through Jolly.
After initially reprimanding Jolly for his mistakes in filing the PIL and presenting the press reports as evidence, Judge Sunderlal Tripathi (Saurabh Shukla) warns Jolly to collect some valid evidence before the next hearing. Jolly then runs to Albert Pinto (Harsh Chhaya), who claims to have witnessed the accident, but soon learns that he is a lackey of Rajpal and was being used to extract more money from the Dewan family. As part of the deal, Pinto gives Jolly a share of the money and turns hostile in court. However, Sandhya and Kaul Saab chide Jolly for compromising on justice for his greed, provoking him to return the money to Rajpal and challenge him to win the case.
With the help of Pratap, Jolly collects the video footage of the car involved in the accident and presents it to the court. Rajpal counters that the car was driven by the Dewan family's driver and the footage was fake. Jolly refutes it by successfully cross-examining the driver, who finally accepts that he has registered a false testimony. Tripathi then orders the police to provide a bodyguard for Jolly after he is manhandled by Rajpal's colleagues. Although Sub-Inspector Satbir Rathi (Sandeep Bose), who is also on Rajpal's payroll, tries to sabotage him, Jolly, with the help of his bodyguard, Constable Haldiram (Mukund Bhatt), leaves for Gorakhpur after learning that Sadakant Mishra (Sushil Pandey), a survivor of the accident, stays there.
Jolly, after passing through many hurdles, successfully brings Mishra to the court. Rajpal tries to scuttle proceedings but the hesitant Tripathi overrules him. Mishra reveals the truth of the accident; that night, he and his relatives were sleeping on the footpath when Rahul Dewan drove his Land Cruiser over them, except Mishra. When he saw Mishra witnessing what he did, Rahul Dewan backed his car, hoping to run over him, but instead ran over his leg, resulting in it being amputated. Mishra also states that Rathi had threatened him after the accident and fabricated the investigation, and that he was only allowed to go after he offered his hard-earned money and jewellery for his sister's marriage to Rathi. Mishra also identifies Rahul Dewan as the one who drove the car. After the emotional closing arguments by Rajpal and Jolly, Tripathi directs the police department to suspend Rathi and initiate a criminal inquiry against him, and also declares Rahul Dewan as guilty of the crime and sentences him to seven years of imprisonment under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. As Jolly walks out receiving praises, Rajpal sits crestfallen over losing a case for the first time.
The story is inspired by the events of the Sanjeev Nanda hit-and-run case of 1999.[4]
Release
Critical reception
Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3.5 stars and said "Jolly LLB is a power-packed courtroom drama. But, most importantly, it celebrates the spirit of the common man seeking justice and impartiality most effectively. Just don't miss this jolly good film!".[5]Anupama Chopra of the Hindustan Times said parts of the film are "laugh-out-loud funny, but underneath the humour is an angry critique of the system, so easily manipulated by the rich and so difficult to penetrate for the poor."[6]
The music of Jolly LLB was composed by Krsna. Lyrics were penned by Subhash Kapoor and Vayu (for "Jhooth Boliya"). The first song promo, "Mere Toh L Lag Gaye" by Bappi Lahiri, was released on 13 February 2013. In the soundtrack, the song has been cut into two different songs, one titled "Law Lag Gaye" while the other "L Lag Gaye". The second song promo, "Jhooth Boliya" by Kamal Khan was released on 15 February 2013. The full soundtrack was released on 22 February 2013 under the label T-Series. It consists of eight songs.
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