You acquiesce to the brilliance of Dhillon’s superlative writing and allow the film to unfurl the answers to your questions all by itself.

As the film begins and accreditations to the cast and crew appear on the screen, you get to see origami made out of newspaper cut-outs. Each of them accompanies itself with grim headlines about rape or domestic violence by men against women. Reading such headlines (for instance, a father burnt her daughter alive) unsettles you.

Director Prakash Kovelamudi’s Judgementall Hai Kya isn’t exactly a film about a woman suffering under male dominance or violence. It’s a complex story that traverses different paths and confuses you in the process before finally presenting a ‘big reveal’ (Be prepared to be amazed when that happens). It’s about a woman trying to save another woman from the grasp of a man who is disguised as a different person. It’s also about a man trying to save his wife from falling prey to false claims of another woman. There’s a constant pursuit of finding the real accused who killed an innocent woman. Amidst all of this, there are women in the film who fall victim to a man’s cruelty as he burns them alive and enjoys their shrieks.

The two main characters in the film are Bobby (Kangana Ranaut) and Keshav (Rajkummar Rao). Bobby has a mental disorder called “acute psychosis” as a doctor explains in the film. Bobby’s so-called boyfriend, Varun (Hussain Dalal), explains, in layman’s terms, that she has “complexes” in her mind. Ever since she was a small girl, she has shown particular attention towards helpless women being bogged down by men’s brutality. It is this propensity towards women’s sufferings that makes her collect newspaper clippings on such news and make origami out of them. She winds up meeting Keshav as he, along with his wife (played by Amyra Dastur whose sensual scenes, in particular, with Rajkummar Rao were outstanding), rent a house of which Bobby is the landlord. Keshav’s character doesn’t give you a clear perception of what he’s like. Sometimes he is shown to be a good husband who is affectionate towards his wife. But you also get to see him doing peculiar things, which even Bobby notices, and make you believe he might not be a good person and hiding a villainous side of him. Things start turning topsy-turvy when Bobby gets “obsessed” with Keshav. She not only develops a feeling of lust towards Keshav but also gathers doubts if he’s intending to kill his wife.

The film, then, leaves you startled, as the events that follow tests your ability to guess who’s the killer and who’s the saviour. Well, the credit goes to Kanika Dhillon’s fantastic writing, of course, for lending the film this absolute power of surprising you at all instances and never allowing you to settle down or have a sigh of relief. You always juggle between your assumptions based on different evidence that the film produces at every stage. After a while, you acquiesce to the brilliance of Dhillon’s superlative writing and allow the film to unfurl the answers to your questions all by itself. In short, just let Bobby do the judgement. The amazing background score and the horror-film-like feel makes the film even more thrilling.

The comedy instances involving Varun and Bobby were especially hilarious. Varun, in a scene, tries to convince Bobby that it’s about time they get married and have sex. Bobby replies childishly saying that they are doing exactly what married couples do, that is, buy groceries together. Varun also constantly complains of being “used” by her. He, evoking gales of laughter, reveals that the condom, he had in his pocket for so long with the hope of having sex with her, has “expired” without being used.

There are some minor loopholes felt in the film. There’s a character called Megha (Amrita Puri) who is pregnant in the film. She has escaped a life-threatening situation and lost her husband. But she doesn’t show any kind of consternation in her countenance (She calmly says thanks to Bobby). In another scene, Bobby, after an attacker slits her wrists, gets admitted in a hospital. She escapes from the hospital and all of a sudden, despite her poor health, manages to appear at Megha’s doorstep, in an outfit, that represents an Indian mythological figure. There’s another scene where Keshav is being interrogated by a couple of policemen. Keshav dissuades them from charging anything against him. His efforts of proving his innocence before policemen, where he bewails the loss of his wife, feel superficial and devoid of emotions as if the whole act is purposely done for the audience to catch something uncanny there. Don’t bother if you see policemen failing to notice that. A film that has so many unexpected turns could have done away with such an attempt. With that being said, the film’s narrative is so abundant with surprises and mind-boggling scenes, these little loopholes seem trivial. The film can’t have made such an impact if not for exemplary acts from Rajkummar Rao and Kangana Ranaut. If you are in the mood for a rollicking, engrossing, funny and a mind-blowing film, then Judgementall Hai Kya is for you.