Based on the 2017 Korean movie “New Trial”, “Birbal” is the first installment of the Birbal Trilogy and the first installment in a cinematic universe followed by Ghost in which M. G. Srinivas, who is also the director, reprises his role as lawyer Mahesh Das.
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In Bangalore, Mahesh is the one who stands out from an audition for young lawyers, taking place in a law firm headed by Hedge. The young man, along with Jahnvi, his fiance who also works for the company and Shastry, an assistant who is more cheeky than he should, take up the case of Vishnu. The young man, 8 years ago, was suspected of killing Ramdas, a taxi driver and a police informer, was arrested by Inspector Raghavan and was eventually imprisoned. Now that the case is reopened, he has been released awaiting the trial, and Mahesh and his collaborators are handling his case.
The young man is initially quite negative towards them, since a number of lawyers have tricked him and his mother in recent years, but Mahesh eventually convinces him to give him the opportunity. However, the more he gets into the case, the more corruption in the police he stumbles on, as Raghavan is not willing to let Vishnu go, using any weapon in his hands. Eventually, the trial commences, although even more problems arise.
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“Birbal” is an unusual movie, since it combines a number of elements, both positive and negative, not so frequently found together in cinema. For starters, the beginning and essentially the basis of the movie is rather cliched, with the cocky, rather smart lawyer defending a young man who seems to be wrongly accused, and who is initially unwilling to accept his help. The way the authorities are presented as the villain in the most in-your-face way, personified on Raghavan also moves in the same direction. The same applies to the presence of a comic relief character, Shastry, in order to lighten the mood and add another type of entertainment, while the presence of women in the story can only be described as forced.
The fact that the story had all the prerequisites to become a trial drama but never actually materializes this path, instead having Mahesh as a detective/hero against all odds, is probably the ‘weirdest’ aspect here, but it is not the only one. The way the Rashomon effect is implemented is equally unusual, as much as the way the final twist is revealed, which, evidently, barely makes any sense.
Furthermore, the aesthetics and production values, including cinematography, editing and acting frequently move from TV to cinematic aesthetics and vice versa, in another unusual element here. Bharat Parasuram’s cinematography is frequently rather bright and polished, in TV fashion, frequently dark and noirish, in a more cinematic approach. Srikanth Shroff’s editing results in a relatively fast pace that moves towards a cinema movie but the manipulation of film speed that gives the impression of a slide show and the intense slow motion are more TV-like.
Lastly, M.G. Srinivas as Mahesh is occasionally grandiose in his presentation, occasionally down to earth, but his performance is mostly quite cinematic. Madhusudhan Rao as Inspector Raghavan on the other hand portrays his character with an excessiveness that points towards soap operas, with the same applying to the way Sujay Shastry plays Shastry, although in comic terms in his case.
What is definitely intriguing here, though, is the overall case, with the ambiguity about what will happen in the end actually carrying the whole movie from beginning to end, even if the result becomes somewhat evident after a point. The way the protagonist reaches it though, is definitely not expected, in a rather entertaining approach. Lastly, the action scenes are all impressively shot and in general implemented, highlighting Srinivas’s prowess in directing many people on screen at the same time.
“Birbal” is definitely entertaining and will satisfy most fans of crime movies, but in the end, it emerges as a mixed bag, since the plethora of elements here are not exactly combined in harmonic fashion, resulting in a movie which frequently appears without specific direction.
