Vakeel Sir (Eng: Lawyer Sir) is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language legal drama film written and directed by Venu Sriram and produced by Dil Raju and Sirish under Sri Venkateswara Creations in association with Bayview Projects. A remake of the 2016 Hindi film Pink, the film stars Pawan Kalyan, Nivetha Thomas, Anjali, Ananya Nagalla, Prakash Raj, and Shruti Haasan.
Pallavi, Zareena, and Divya are independent working women and they all live together. One night their car breaks down in the middle of the highway and Viswa, who is Pallavi’s friend offers them a lift. Moments later Bunty and Viswa rush Vamsi to the nearest hospital because Vamsi is bleeding from a heavy injury to his head. At the same time, the three women return to their apartment in a taxi. They look disoriented, and it is implied that they have something to do with the incident. They then try to move on from what happened that night.
At the same time a drunk and jobless Satyadev moves to a new colony and comes across these three girls. Threats arise from Vamsi as he pushes for revenge for the injury Pallavi caused Vamsi. The threats result in Zareena losing her job. They are ultimately discouraged from filing a complaint, stating it would make their daily lives more miserable. In reality, the local police are aware that the men are “well-connected” and backed by MP Korentla Rajendra who is Vamsi’s father.
The next day, Pallavi is kidnapped by Vamsi’s friends. Pallavi is threatened, blackmailed, and molested in the moving car and dropped back home, leaving her shaken. A few days later, she is arrested based on a complaint from Vamsi labeling the women as prostitutes and charging Vamsi with attempted murder. At this point, Zareena and Divya are hopeless and then they stumble across Satyadev. Satyadev suggests that they can get an emergency bail from a lawyer. The girls do not believe him as he seems like an alcoholic. They later discover that Satyadev was a reputable and respectable lawyer but he gets suspended for 4 years due to him harming a fellow lawyer in court. At the same time, his wife dies due to pregnancy complications & fits when Satyadev had to leave her alone at home causing him to ultimately give up the profession. He then declines to help Zareena and Divya with the case but later on he gets attacked by the Rajendra’s men and decides to represent Pallavi in court.
Scared of Satyadev, Vamsi and Rajendra meet Advocate Nanda Gopal who agrees to take up the case. In the courtroom, Nanda presents the following version of events in the court: Vamsi and his friends help Pallavi and her friends due to their cab breaking down. They invite the women for dinner at a resort, since they said that they were hungry, where they have drinks. The women provoke the men, become intimate, and thereafter demand money, all signs indicating that they are prostitutes. Vamsi refuses to pay and an enraged Pallavi hits him on the head with a bottle and flees. Nanda’s argument focuses on the poor moral character of the women. He attacks the fact that Pallavi has family in Hyderabad but chooses to live with her friends.
Pallavi and her friends’ state that the men tried to sexually assault them. Vamsi tried to rape Pallavi, and she attacked him with the bottle in self-defense. Satyadev’s argument focuses on the issue of consent and a woman’s right to say no. A series of chilling courtroom arguments ensues in the following days. Towards the end of the trial, Zareena is provoked by Nanda to say that she took the money from the men causing a distress in the court. However, Satyadev does not give up and he makes Vamsi enrage leading him to reveal the truth, stating that the women “Got what they deserved”.
Satyadev criticizes the regressed views of the society where women are stereotyped as prostitutes if they come home late, move out, want to be independent, drink and so on, but none of these apply to men. He closes with the fact that his client said “NO”. No means no, and does not require further explanation. The next day, Satyadev and the women are attacked by Siva on the train but Satyadev fights them off and they go back to the court. The women are then acquitted while Vamsi, Bunty, and Siva are charged, with their sentences pending while Viswa is let off with a warning. After the case is closed, Satyadev decides to come back to his profession to help the common people with their problems. Zareena regains a job, Pallavi gets engaged and Divya enters her newly constructed home.
Directed by Venu Sriram
Written by Venu Sriram
Based on Pink by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Shoojit Sircar and Ritesh Shah
Produced by Dil Raju, Sirish & Boney Kapoor
Starring Pawan Kalyan, Nivetha Thomas, Anjali, Ananya Nagalla, Prakash Raj, Shruti Haasan
Cinematography P. S. Vinod
Edited by Prawin Pudi
Music by S. Thaman
Production Sri Venkateswara Creations & Bayview Projects
Release date 9 April 2021
Running time 156 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
