Her father calls her “Princess”—Neha Rajvansh (Sonakshi Sinha) frets because Ravi (Ashutosh Gowariker), the high-flying defence lawyer, who has never lost a case, wants her to slog in the public prosecutor’s office till she has proved worthy of being a partner in the family firm. The PP’s office has no AC and terrible loos, but the condition is that she wins ten consecutive cases to enter the hallowed portal of Rajvansh’s office, which the son never had to fulfill.
Ashwiny Tiwari Iyer’s System (on Amazon Prime Video), assumes like so many Indian TV or web shows, that the Indian legal system is smooth and quick, while in reality the simplest of cases can drag for years. For someone who demands a seat at dad’s table, Neha is a bit daft. To win her first case, she has to take a very obvious tip from the court stenographer Sarika (a luminous Jyothika). Over chai latte at a swank café, where Sarika grimaces at the tea and drowns it in sugar– Neha strikes a deal with her; Sarika’s experience for Neha’s money.
Sarika has a handicapped husband, a bright daughter whose ambition needs funds, so she does multiple jobs and is not averse to a roll in bed with a useful source. Neha’s comfortable mansion is compared to Sarika’s cramped apartment, and already the viewer is rooting for her. Neha’s privileged princess gets a reality check too.
If there is a father-daughter conflict introduced, it is inevitable that a case will come where she stands up in court against him, and movie rules dictate that the underdog wins—so that’s no spoiler. But Tiwari and her writers (the story is by producer Harman Baweja) complicate the plot, introduce a revenge element, and a character so driven with hate, that anybody coming in the way had better beware.
Ravi’s buddy and constant client, Vikram Bagral (Vijaykant Kohli) is accused of murdering a social media influencer, and there is a connection to the past, which the experienced Ravi, is unprepared for!
The film tries to be meaningful and make the point that a crime has to be proved, even if justice is dropped by the wayside, but uses the illogical storytelling of a mainstream film. Still the courtroom scenes are flat, and Neha makes for a particularly naïve protagonist, who does eventually grow up. From princess to cynical twister of the legal process.
Overlook the contrivances, and System is worth a weekend watch—the pace is brisk, the performances competent, and the climax has a twist that has a moral conundrum attached to it.
System
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Jyothika, Ashutosh Gowariker and others
On Amazon Prime Video
