Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Anupama Chopra reviews System, directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and starring Sonakshi Sinha and Jyothika, for The Hollywood Reporter India. Anupama describes the film as wildly implausible, often slapdash but mostly watchable, centring on two women who are cogs in the Indian judicial system yet find ways to succeed against the odds. Sonakshi plays Neha, a legal nepo baby whose hotshot father Ravi Rajvansh (Ashutosh Gowariker) insists she prove herself as a public prosecutor by winning 10 cases consecutively before making her a partner. Jyothika plays Sarika, a court stenographer whose years on the job have given her profound insight into how money, class, privilege, gender and connections enable injustice — until her path becomes uncomfortably entangled with Neha’s, forcing Neha to confront her own moral centre.
Anupama notes that while the subject isn’t new — invoking Sunny Deol’s tareekh pe tareekh speech in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Damini and RJ Balaji’s recent Tamil blockbuster Karuppu — what’s fresh in System is the portrayal of its two female leads, especially Sarika, whose moral ambiguity she finds refreshing. She praises Jyothika for playing the role with steely, unsentimental wisdom that propels the film, with Sonakshi providing a solid foil, and singles out a quietly devastating scene between Sarika and her wheelchair-bound husband as one of Ashwiny’s best moments. Co-written by Harman Baweja, Arun Sukumar, Akshat Ghildial, Tasneem Lokhandwala and Ashwiny herself, System works best when you ignore the silliness, the heavy-handed dialogue and the growing gaps in logic. Anupama’s THR Bottomline: the film isn’t half as smart as it thinks it is but enough of the twists land. System is streaming on Amazon Prime.
#System #SystemReview #THRIndia
Anupama Chopra reviews System, directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and starring Sonakshi Sinha and Jyothika, for The Hollywood Reporter India. Anupama describes the film as wildly implausible, often slapdash but mostly watchable, centring on two women who are cogs in the Indian judicial system yet find ways to succeed against the odds. Sonakshi plays Neha, a legal nepo baby whose hotshot father Ravi Rajvansh (Ashutosh Gowariker) insists she prove herself as a public prosecutor by winning 10 cases consecutively before making her a partner. Jyothika plays Sarika, a court stenographer whose years on the job have given her profound insight into how money, class, privilege, gender and connections enable injustice — until her path becomes uncomfortably entangled with Neha’s, forcing Neha to confront her own moral centre.
Anupama notes that while the subject isn’t new — invoking Sunny Deol’s tareekh pe tareekh speech in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Damini and RJ Balaji’s recent Tamil blockbuster Karuppu — what’s fresh in System is the portrayal of its two female leads, especially Sarika, whose moral ambiguity she finds refreshing. She praises Jyothika for playing the role with steely, unsentimental wisdom that propels the film, with Sonakshi providing a solid foil, and singles out a quietly devastating scene between Sarika and her wheelchair-bound husband as one of Ashwiny’s best moments. Co-written by Harman Baweja, Arun Sukumar, Akshat Ghildial, Tasneem Lokhandwala and Ashwiny herself, System works best when you ignore the silliness, the heavy-handed dialogue and the growing gaps in logic. Anupama’s THR Bottomline: the film isn’t half as smart as it thinks it is but enough of the twists land. System is streaming on Amazon Prime.
#System #SystemReview #THRIndia
