Stories about a cold-blooded murderer are a rarity in Marathi cinema. Mangesh Desai plays such a killer in director Sameer Ramesh Surve’s Judgement. The film stars Tejashree Pradhan as his daughter.
Going by the film's trailer, which was released earlier today, Judgement isn’t all about the killer. As per the title, the film is more about a court drama. The story starts when Pradhan’s character Rujuta Satam is a kid. She witnesses her father, IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer Agnivesh Satam (Desai), ruthlessly kill her mother.
Despite having witnessed the horrific crime, Rujuta gives false testimony in court in favour of Agnivesh because someone close to the family tells her that if her father goes to jail, she and her younger sister will be left to fend for themselves. However, 15 years later, Rujuta, now a lawyer, decides to reopen the case and ensure that her killer father is punished.
The story is based on the book Rounn (ऋण) written by former IAS officer Neela Satyanarayana. During the trailer launch, Neela said her story was based on a true incident that she had come across.
The story is certainly interesting. It is not often that we see a daughter taking revenge on her own father, that too in a completely legal way.
The presentation of the trailer, however, isn’t up to the mark. The story goes to and fro unnecessarily. The background score is loud and overshadows the dialogues on a few occasions.
This is the first time Mangesh Desai, best known for playing the late actor Bhagwan in the biopic Ek Albela (2016), is playing an out-and-out negative character and he seems to have done his part well.
Judgement is set to be released on 24 May. Watch the trailer below and let us know if you are keen to watch this film.