COURT is a 2025 Telugu courtroom – drama movie, directed by Ram Jagadeesh starring Priyadarshi Pulikonda, Harsh Roshan, Sridevi, and Sivaji. It is streaming on Netflix and can be seen with dubbed audio in many languages and subtitles. Most of the film is in a courtroom, and deals with an important and at times controversial POCSO Act. I saw the dubbed Hindi version with English subtitles.
To understand this movie one has to first know the POCSO Act. The POCSO Act, or the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, is a law in India aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. It covers various sexual offenses against children, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography, and establishes Special Courts for their trial. The Act also defines a child as a person under the age of 18 and includes mechanisms to protect their interests throughout the legal process.
The story simply relates to teenage love where a young boy is charged under the POCSO Act, of having sex with his slightly under-18 girlfriend, on suspicion. A passionate defence lawyer fights the teenage accused’s case, in a prejudiced and corrupt judicial system.
The girl’s conservative and aggressive brother-in -law instigates the case against the accused on mere suspicion for family honour, disregarding the family’s reluctance to launch an FIR. The movie is engaging with continuous courtroom drama, exposing the Indian judicial system’s black spots. But the defence lawyer forces a retrial after almost losing the case. A fast-faced retrial is revealing with new evidence rebutting circumstantial evidence as not having a bearing on real evidence. The teenagers just going into a room is not enough to charge a teenager under the POCSO Act. Interesting arguments in the court make the movie a worth see.
One point, I feel, was not talked in the movie. In a case of this nature the medical examination of the alleged victim can be crucial evidence. Why the defence of the accused did not demand it? Probably, because the FIR was registered by intimidation after some days of the alleged incident. But even a late medical examination in a sexual nature case can be revealing. Anyway, the climax should be seen in the movie.
The actors have done a good job and it goes to the credit of the director Ram Jagadeesh for being able to handle this sensitive subject ably. The misuse of POCSO Act, has been demonstrated and the need to educate people about such and other laws emphasised. The necessities of the legal profession and that of the POSCO law itself are essential to know.
No doubt, any law can be misused and that happens often, still the rule of law is the bedrock of a democratic country.
Rating – 3 and half stars out of five.
