For Chaitanya Tamhane, a literature grad from Mumbai's Mithibai College, Bollywood's courtroom dramas with gravel-tapping judges and over-the-top lawyers always rang false. Also, they jumped directly to the High Court or the Supreme Court. “One day, I visited one of the city's lower courts and was surprised by the lack of drama there,“ says the 28-year-old director of Court, a film that looks at the flaws of the Indian judicial system with an unsparing eye. “The lawyers spoke softly, the judges weren't dramatic and on occasions, those in the courtroom didn't quite understand the technical lingo being spoken. It was like time had come to a grinding halt there.“

Having discovered a court which was a far cry from theatrical histrionics, Chaitanya was inspired to make a film set there and started talking to activists, lawyers, academicians. “And came upon a case that baffled me like nothing had,“ he says.

Jiten Marandi, a tribal activist from Jharkhand, was given the death sentence in 2011 in the Chilkari massacre case. In a frightening turn of events, the cops had been looking for another Jiten Marandi, a Maoist who was believed to be involved in the case, but since they couldn't track him, they jailed the activist instead. After protests by intellectuals, poets and other activists, Marandi was eventually released and his story is one of the muses for Court, a fictional story about a protest singer being charged for abetting a sewage worker's suicide.

“Marandi's case told me that ordinary people in positions of authority take life-and-death decisions daily and power can delude them,“ he says. “I wanted to make a film that explores the layman's engagement with institutions, especially legal, as there's a lot of irony and humor to be found there.“

Vivek Gomber who'd acted in his play Grey Elephants of Denmark came on board as producer and the film went on to bag the Lion of the Future award at the 2014 Venice Film Fest. “Since the film is rooted in Mumbai, I didn't expect the international audience to relate to it. I didn't think I had an audience at all, and that was scary,“ Chaitanya confides. But he was encouraged when filmgoers in Italy, Hong Kong, Turkey and Siberia responded to the film saying it was a familiar situation back home. “An Italian told me that their judicial system is similar to India's. Other countries we took the film to happened to be politically charged with lots of protests happening, so they could see a connect“ (referring to the 2014 Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong and the Gezi Park protest in Turkey) How does he think the Indian audience will respond to the film when it opens on April 17? “After we won at MAMI I believe people are really curious to watch it,“ he says.

In the current censorship-driven environment, is he expecting any trouble? “We don't know who will be offended by the film as it's a strong commentary against censorship itself.We're just hoping we won't get pulled into any lawsuits,“ he smiles.