The ghastly rape incidents in our country have prompted filmmakers to come out with films and web series like Pink and Delhi Crime to create awareness as well as to project the fight against these heinous crimes. Amazon Prime Video‘s Law, which is the first Kannada feature film to get a direct OTT release due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is another entry portraying the fight for justice.
Story
Law opens with a gang rape incident and Nandini (Ragini Prajwal), the victim approaches the police station to report the same. She reveals that there were three culprits involved in the crime.
The police make a mockery of the complaint and drive Nandini to open up in social media and seek the intervention of people for taking action against the criminals by police. Forced by the outrage of public, the Government transfers the case to the crime branch and Parthasarathy Brahma (Hebbale Krishna) is appointed as the investigation officer.
Meanwhile, the rapist trio who enjoys the patronage of politicians, tries to cover up the case but don’t succeed as it reaches the court for the final verdict. Nandini, herself being an advocate takes up the mantle of fighting her case against the mighty lawyer, Shyam Prasad (Rajesh Nataranga) who is infamous for his ability to tweak any case in his favour.
Performances
The debutant Ragini is passable as there is nothing much for her to emote or act except to stare and smile at the camera. Comparatively, Krishna and Nataranga are a shade better and perform well within their characters.
Mukhyamantri Chandru as Judge Siddalingayya has more dialogues than the main characters. However, he is good in parts keeping aside some absurdities in his characterization.
Positives
The opening scenes are pretty good and looked promising but later on, the entire thing goes for a toss. After the entry of Brahma, the story picks up a little momentum with some investigation scenes providing scope for curiosity.
The silver lining is the out of context song composed by Vasuki Vasudev which is pleasant and sounds refreshing amidst a lifeless narrative.
Negatives
Except for a few bright spots, Law is quite predictable and courtroom scenes are insipid without any intensity or seriousness.
Writer-director Raghu Samarth has failed to cash on the emotions that surround a highly volatile theme like gang rape due to poor writing and even the twist during the climax, which should have lifted the film, falls flat due to amateurish handling. The whole film looks very pale and ordinary without any sincere effort to connect with the audience.
Worth it?
Worthy enough skip unless one has high endurance levels to go through the farfetched court drama that is well below the expectations. When there is so much different and varied content available on various OTT platforms, there is no point in watching Law and waste precious time.
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