‘Patna Shuklla’ Review: Despite Evident Flaws, Raveena Tandon’s Film Is Engaging

For a split second during one of Patna Shuklla’s closing scenes, a Raveena Tandon monologue transported me back to when I’d watch courtroom dramas from the 90s on a dry Sunday afternoon. It didn’t matter that they weren’t always novel or that sometimes they didn’t make a lot of sense – the only thing that mattered was that they were engaging. That’s also what makes this film a decent watch; it remains engaging throughout. 

Raveena Tandon is Tanvi Shukla – a lower court lawyer in Patna who deals with seemingly insignificant cases. After a B.Sc. student Rinki Kumari (Anushka Kaushik), who believes her marks have been tampered with, approaches her, Tanvi finds herself fighting the system. A little digging reveals that there is systemic rot to be uncovered and she must now deal with a powerful politician along with a clearly corrupt university. 

We’ve recently seen a similar template in Bhumi Pednekar’s Bhakshak – a woman tackles one threat after another as she fights a corrupt system. That, however, doesn't take away from Patna Shuklla’s merit as a film – the template might be similar but it’s one we so rarely get to see that it still has its charm. Raveena Tandon, at the helm, does a remarkable job of realising Tanvi’s character but there are moments where I wished we saw more Tanvi than a Bollywood actor playing Tanvi.

For me, the dissonance arises from the ways the dialogues are written – I understand the need for ‘smart’-sounding dialogues in a courtroom setting but for a character like Tanvi, who is meant to be unassuming, they feel out of place. 

The recent Netflix show, Maamla Legal Hai, is a good example of how dialogues would work in a lower court setting – they do not need to be heroic sermons; they just need to be authentic. The melodrama does work for me but that’s because I enjoy melodrama. I can still, however, recognise that sometimes the film relies heavily on the melodrama to feel engaging. 

A performance that stood out to me was Anushka Kaushik’s. She doesn’t have enough screen time to really showcase her skills but every scene she does appear in is effective. Her determination and desperation are both visible and she elevates her role beyond what she gets. Chandan Roy Sanyal is annoying and that’s exactly what he needs to be – the sheer aura of arrogance he brings to the screen makes the courtroom scenes more interesting. 

We’re first introduced to Tanvi rushing around her house, trying to make sure her husband Siddharth (Manav Vij) makes it to office on time and their son doesn’t miss the school bus. Her identity as a lawyer is established briefly when two quarreling women barge into her house asking her to take their case. 

I found myself a little skeptical. I wondered if Tanvi Shukla would be just another female character who will embark on a path of self actualisation to realise that she is ‘more than a homemaker’. There is nothing wrong with those stories per say but Patna Shuklla actually finds a very good balance in the way it deals with patriarchy. Tanvi isn’t your typical extraordinary protagonist just waiting for the right chance to truly showcase her talents. She is actually a completely ordinary person – the only thing she actually covets is respect. 

When her husband asks her to make extra food because he’s invited guests home, only to walk into his room to rest, her discomfort is evident. The film doesn’t explore that aspect enough, the way Neeraj Ghaywan’s Juice did for example but it’s not a complete waste. Later when he underplays her career to appease his friends’ wives, she calls him out for it. The judge (Satish Kaushik) tells her she’s better at cooking than she is at arguments in court and it’s true. She isn’t a very competent lawyer but one does still wonder if this is something a male colleague would have to hear. 

This is reality. Patna Shuklla, through scenes like this, is asking – do women need to be extraordinary to be given a level playing field? Do they have to overachieve to get equal opportunity and respect? No, they don’t and that is why characters like Tanvi Shukla are important to see on screen.

The film’s understanding of privilege is its best quality and it clearly isn’t afraid to examine the same through a very timely lens – when a family does something that irks a politician, the government employee husband suddenly finds himself facing an inquiry and a bulldozer is sent to their house. A husband is asked to ‘keep his wife in control’, a young student from an underprivileged family and a Muslim man have both become victims of a system that isn’t listening to them. 

The film posits that anyone in a position of any privilege does benefit from a corrupt system, whether they like it or not. In a world like that, addressing our privilege and standing on the right side of history becomes crucial. Speaking of privilege, the way Siddharth’s character plays out is very well-written. One of the qualms I had with Bhakshak was that the husband has a complete change of heart after one argument.

Here, Siddharth’s change of heart is more personal. He doesn’t change his ways because he is called out; he is just a good person who understands his privilege. He supports his wife because she’s right; not because he wants to sit on a moral high horse. He never tries to become a saviour either – instead, he grows into a good partner and that is enough.   

Alas, there are many moments in the film that ‘tell’ instead of ‘showing’. For instance, the guests at the Shuklas’ house have to point out they’re all ‘housewives’, for Tanvi to interject that she’s ‘also a lawyer’. A journalist who earlier tried to fight the same fight as Tanvi has an ailing wife to take care of. In one scene, a corrupt official is thankful that Tanvi doesn’t call him out in front of his daughter. The sentiment is….cute…but the daughter’s dialogues feel so cosmetic that the entire scene falls a little flat. I do, however, appreciate the way Tanvi’s relationship with her father plays out throughout the film and the way it ties into the ending is impressive. 

Patna Shuklla is an engaging but slightly frustrating watch – and I never actually understood how Tanvi gets the Patna Shuklla nickname. I understand where it comes from but we never actually see how that caught on. The flaws in Patna Shuklla are evident but the film has enough going for it to merit a watch. Sometimes, even films that aren’t perfect make for good material. This is one such film.