One Day: Justice Delivered - Movie Review

The Netflix descriptor of this movie reads “Bound by the law, he let them walk free. He’s no longer a judge – but he’ll stop at nothing to seek justice.” The idea of a retired judge going rogue kind of drew me in, especially in the light of our current societal structure where the rich and the well-connected get away with pretty much anything under the sun. And when I saw that Anupam Kher was playing the protagonist, I thought it’d be a decent movie. Boy, was I mistaken! 

The lingering, bitter aftertaste of this movie is that of bad acting. And I mean really bad acting, even from the likes of Rajesh Sharma who is generally so convincing and relatable. Anupam Kher tries very hard to oscillate between the retired-judge-relaxing-with-family and the calculative vigilante, failing monumentally in both. Esha Gupta’s awful supposedly-Haryanvi accent (which disappears completely in a few scenes) and appalling acting results in a lousy caricature of a strong, no-holds-barred woman police officer. Zakir Hussain’s acting chops have been criminally underutilised, so much so that he was been reduced to nothing more than a farcical side character showing off his political clout while mouthing a few undercooked dialogues. Kumud Mishra as Inspector Sharma is the only saving grace, pulling off anger, confusion and humility with equal élan. 

The storytelling is uninspired, there are some comically outdated dialogues like “kanoon ke shikanje mein jakadna”, the court proceedings are silly, and the less said about the music the better. Even the attempt at making the retribution scenes look gruesome falls flat because of the wretched direction. 

Another thing which ensures that this 2019 Ashok Nanda movie wallows in the lowest rungs of mediocrity are the loopholes in the plot, some of which are even bigger than Bombay’s famed potholes (refer to ‘Sonu Tuza Mazyavar Bharosa Nai Kai - Pothole Mix’ for more). 

A completely forgettable movie.