The trusted combo of Jeethu and Lal is back with a legal drama which did fell short of being a riveting watch. It did not scale any new heights and it missed the mark at least by a mile. One good thing about Neru is that you get to see the real actor Lal along with his restrained but an effective performance. Anaswara Rajan is terrific as the victim.
The subject of rape and handling of those in courtroom is not new. Here Jeethu did not try to reinvent the wheel much. The guilty party is shown upfront but our legal systems needs solid evidence and to make the matter worse the victim in question is blind. What follows is the usual pattern of courtroom. Wealthy parents who are willing to go to any extent, a top gun lawyer to defend, fabricating evidence all follows. Jeethu still made this an interesting watch mostly because of the emotional punch and grounded story telling. There were some compelling arguments and counter arguments through out. Usually rape victims often are suspects in their own cases and their behavior, past all gets questioned. There is a thin line between consent and rape. The film nicely captures ordeals the victim went through both physically and psychologically.
Shortcomings are plenty in this story, flashy at times, surprise witnesses , unexpected revelations and more importantly creative liberty of staging things. The anticlimax portion was totally unwarranted. But the argument leading to anticlimax is nice one. Its the last bait which cracked up the case. Its not high voltage drama but reasonable good one to keep us engaged. Thumbs up to the final walk and truth prevails.
Verdict - 3/5(The fight continues...)