Review: ‘Court – State vs. a Nobody,’ starring Priyadarshi Pulikonda, Harsh Roshan, Sridevi and Sivaji

March, 25, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Court – State vs. a Nobody”

Directed by Ratanrishi

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2013, primarily in Visakhapatnam, India, the dramatic film “Court – State vs. a Nobody” features an all-Indian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A 19-year-old man is wrongfully accused of various crimes against his 17-year-old girlfriend because her corrupt and domineering uncle doesn’t approve of the relationship.

Culture Audience: “Court – State vs. a Nobody” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and courtroom dramas.

“Court – State vs. a Nobody” has some melodrama and an excessive music score. However, this story (about a wrongfully accused teenager and his attorney seeking justice in a sex-crimes case) has riveting courtroom scenes, good acting and engaging dialogue. It’s a cautionary tale of how innocent people can be targeted in abuses of power. It’s also an inspirational tale of how unjustly accused people can fight back against corruption and hold law breakers accountable for their crimes and other misdeeds.

Written and directed by Ram Jagadeesh, “Court – State vs. a Nobody” is his feature-film directorial debut. The movie is the first of a series of “Court” movies, with a different courtroom case for each movie. “Court – State vs. a Nobody” takes place in 2013, primarily in Visakhapatnam, India. Jagadeesh has said in interviews that the movie isn’t inspired by any particular case but is inspired by many cases that are similar.

In “Court – State vs. a Nobody,” 19-year-old Mettu “Chandu” Chandrasekhar (played by Harsh Roshan) comes from a large working-class family. He does odd jobs and is a good guy who stays out of trouble. The beginning of the movie shows that Chandu is on trial for various crimes, most of them sex-related, against his 17-year-old girlfriend Jaabili Medugupalli (played by Sridevi), who comes from a large wealthy family. Chandu has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, which include statutory rape, stalking and sexual harassment.

At the time that Chandu was arrested for these crimes, Jaabili was a few months away from turning 18 years old. Chandu and Jaabili are very much in love with each other. She did not accuse Chandu of these crimes or have him arrested. The person responsible for this wrongful arrest is Jaabili’s vindictive and tyrannical uncle Mangapathi (played by Sivaji), who framed Chandu because he doesn’t want “lower caste” Chandu to be in a relationship with Jaabili. Mangapathi is the brother of Jaabili’s widowed mother Medugupalli Sitaratnam (played by Rohini), who is very passive.

Mangapathi considers himself to be the patriarch of the family. He likes to portray himself as very puritanical and always concerned about the family’s reputation. The reality is that Mangapathi is an evil control freak who goes out of his way to get revenge on anyone whom he sees as a threat to his dominance. Sivaji gives a convincing performance as this villain, but Mangapathi is a somewhat two-dimensional character.

Chandu got arrested without any evidence that Chandu committed these crimes. He was arrested simply because used Mangapathi used his connections with corrupt cronies in the police department and because the unscrupulous prosecutor Damodhar, nicknamed Damu (played by Harsha Vardhan), also happens to be Mangapathi’s personal attorney. Chandu has been held in jail without bail and faces up to 14 years in prison. Chandu also experiences police brutality (vicious beatings) while he’s in custody.

A scene in the movie shows one of many examples of Mangapathi’s cruelty. At a family birthday dinner for one of his nieces (who looks like she’s about 12 years old), Mangapathi yells at her for wearing a sleeveless dress. He humiliates her, tells her that she’s unpure, and orders her to change into a dress with sleeves. Everyone in the family is afraid to stand up to Mangapathi and his bullying because they know he is capable of doing some very damaging things to them.

Mangapathi takes advantage of India’s Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which allows an adult to report allegations of child sexual abuse, even if the alleged child victim does not want these allegations to be reported to law enforcement. As an example of how corrupt the police are in this case, the police did not bother to interview Jaabili before Chandu was arrested. And the only “evidence” that the prosecution has is home security video (from a camera in the hallway) showing Chandu and Jaabili going into her bedroom and staying there for about 15 minutes, without any footage showing what Chandu and Jaabili actually did in the room.

“Court – State vs. a Nobody” begins when Chandu’s trial is supposed to end in about three or four days. Much of the film is told in flashbacks, to show how Chandu ended up in this horrible situation. His mother Mettu Nagalakshmi (played by Surabhi Prabhavathi), his father M. Ganapathi (played by Rajasekhar Aningi) and other family members grow desperate because there’s a likely chance that Chandu will be found guilty. The bench trial is being presided over by an unnamed judge (played by Srinivas Bhogireddy), who makes fair decisions.

There’s a glimmer of hope for Chandu and his family: The family is referred to an up-and-coming defense attorney who could possibly take Chandu’s case on short notice. The attorney’s name is Surya Teja (played by Priyadarshi Pulikonda), who is ethical and intelligent. (Surya Teja prefers to be called by his last name.) Teja is a junior attorney at a law firm.

Teja’s father also works in the legal field, as a notary. Teja says he wants to achieve greater things in the law profession than being a notary. However, Teja has not yet been given an opportunity to lead a case in a trial. Teja’s boss Mohan Rao (played by P. Sai Kumar) is reluctant to take Chandu’s case and skeptical that Teja can be the lead attorney on the case.

Of course, as already revealed in the movie’s trailer, Teja ends up becoming Chandu’s lead attorney. Before that happens, Mohan poses a series of hypothetical dilemma questions to Teja, to test Teja’s ability in problem solving. Mohan tells a fictional story about a trolley accident where Teja has an opportunity to save one person or five people. Teja automatically says it’s better to save five people.

Mohan keeps adding information to the story, and Teja’s answers keep changing, based on this information. For example, Mohan reveals that the five people are all criminals, while the other person is not a criminal. Then, Mohan says that the five criminals have the ability to save the land of 600 families. Teja learns an important lesson from Mohan, based on this dilemma exercise: Don’t come to any conclusions until you get as many facts as possible.

All of the cast members give believable performances, but Pulikonda is the obvious standout as crusading attorney Teja. The movie could have had better character development for Chandu, who is basically shown in two scenarios: in legal trouble and in his romance with Jaabili. “Court – State vs. a Nobody” at times gets a little too long-winded and repetitive. The movie did not need to be 155 minutes. The same story could’ve been told in a movie that’s less than two hours long.

The courtroom scenes take some twists and turns, some of which are more believable than others. The prosecution uses some unethical tactics to try to win the case. A particularly outrageous dirty tactic from the prosecution is when the prosecution tries to prevent Jaabili from being called to testify as a witness because the prosecution describes her as “mentally disturbed” with bipolar disorder—even though there’s no evidence that Jaabili has a mental illness.

“Court – State vs. a Nobody” has enough in the dialogue and acting to stir up emotions. And that’s why the movie’s overbearing music score lowers the quality of the movie because this overly loud score bludgeons movie watchers on how they’re supposed to feel in emotional scenes. Despite this cinematic flaw, “Court – State vs. a Nobody” doesn’t let up in its intensity. For people who like courtroom dramas and stories of legal justice, “Court – State vs. a Nobody” is a solid option for viewers with the time and patience to watch movies that stretch past two hours.

Wall Poster Cinema released “Court – State vs. a Nobody” in select U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025. The movie was released in India on March 14, 2025