System

Things fall quite easily in the lap of public prosecutor Neha Rajvansh (Sonakshi Sinha) in Ashwini Iyer Tiwari’s new film System. Neha may be working to get the underprivileged justice in the Delhi court as a public prosecutor, but she comes from a position of privilege. While she is out there to prove a point to her successful father, she is also aware of her limitations and thus takes the help of courtroom stenographer Satika Rawat (Jyotika). Two women headlining a courtroom drama in Bollywood is novel, even though the premise is a known one. But does Iyer Tiwari’s film deliver a sharp courtroom drama? Only in parts.

System stars Sonakshi Sinha as a privileged young professional who strives to shed the ‘nepo-baby’ tag by breaking free from the shadow of an influential father. The meta casting is a common Bollywood gimmick: a version of Deepika Padukone and Siddhant Chaturvedi playing the restless outsiders in Gehraiyaan. The context here supplies the characterisation. Sinha’s Neha Rajvansh might be the daughter of a big-shot lawyer, but her rite of passage includes a ‘lowly’ stint at the state prosecutor’s office. Her reel-clicking, selfie-taking and manicured fingers must toil in the trenches to earn her place in her father’s empire: a legal-world equivalent of industry kids landing jobs as assistant directors before they are launched in big-budget productions. Like her old man, Neha treats her career as a medium of winning, not a battle for justice. When he challenges her to win ten cases in a row, she gets cracking — with the help of the court stenographer, Sarika (Jyotika). All she cares about is the gold at the end of this rainbow.

‘किसी ने जुर्म किया है या नहीं, इस बात से कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता। अगर वह जुर्म साबित किया जा सकता है तो वह दोषी है, वरना नहीं।’ इस संवाद के इर्दगिर्द बुनी गई इस फिल्म की कहानी दरअसल हमारे कानूनी सिस्टम के उन छेदों को दिखाने का काम करती है जिसमें कभी कोई बेकसूर शख्स इसलिए सज़ा पा लेता है क्योंकि सबूत उसके खिलाफ होते हैं, तो कभी कोई कसूरवार इसलिए छूट जाता है क्योंकि गवाह और सबूत उसके खिलाफ होते हैं। दिल्ली के नामी वकील रवि राजवंश बड़े-बड़े केस चुटकी बजाते जीत जाते हैं। उनकी बेटी नेहा राजवंश सरकारी वकील है और अक्सर हारती रहती है। पिता-बेटी में डील होती है कि नेहा लगातार दस केस जीते तो रवि उसे अपना पार्टनर बना लेगा। नेहा एक-एक कर नौ केस जीत भी लेती है। तभी आता है एक ऐसा हाई प्रोफाइल केस जिसमें उसे अपने पिता के खिलाफ ही खड़े होना है। क्या जीत पाएगी वह यह केस? और इससे भी बड़ा सवाल-जीतना ज़्यादा ज़रूरी है या इंसाफ दिलवाना?

A privileged rookie lawyer teams up with a court stenographer to fight cases and seek justice for the underprivileged. System follows Neha Rajvansh (Sonakshi Sinha), a sincere but inexperienced public defender who has a lot to prove to live up to her name. Her father, Ravi Rajvansh (a functional Ashutosh Gowariker), is a hotshot advocate known for representing the wealthy and well-connected. To earn her place at his side, he expects her to grind it out as a ‘sarkari vakil’ and gives her a target: win 10 cases. To get there, Neha finds an unlikely ally in court stenographer Sarika Rawat (an excellent Jyotika).

What ails legal thrillers in the Hindi language space? A lot of other problems apart, it is what the genre refers to as the “gotcha” surprise evidence trope. In film after film — the frequency alone merits this sweeping generalisation — we get to see dramatic, last-second reveals of secret witnesses or documents that swing a case in a way that is all too convenient, and therefore, feels manipulative. It is enough to make audiences feel cheated, especially if you have remained invested in the proceedings up to that point. The problem (or not, depending on which side of the attention divide you have been on) with System is that the film, in its entirety, is based on so much contrivance that by the time you arrive at the “rabbit out of a hat” moment, you simply don’t care. If you are smart — and more importantly, if you somehow manage to push yourself and remain engaged enough during its 123-minute running time — you would have anyway figured out the “twist” long before it happens. In fact, you would have eye-rolled your way through it.

There are countless instances of the influential getting away with murder while the man on the street bears the brunt of their crimes. It’s not uncommon for an eagle-eyed lawyer to use their legal smarts for the benefit of an affluent client while the disadvantaged gets thrown under the bus. In her courtroom drama System, Director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari takes a roundabout route to wonder if everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. But it’s only when she stops asking and starts suggesting how two can play at the game, the plot grows some legs.

In Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s System, a younger lawyer is out to prove her name is more than her father’s and discovers the courtroom only looks at black and white, never the innocent. The Hindi legal drama is led by Sonakshi Sinha and Jyotika, who team up to fight cases and discover a murder case that might be their undoing. Spending much time inside the hallowed halls of the court, System exposes the loopholes and methods used not only by lawyers but also by the police to make sure a culprit is nabbed. The ending leaves viewers with more questions than answers.