'420 IPC' review: Financial scams continue to hold court

Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey in '420 IPC'. (Image: Screen grab)

Vinay Pathak excels at the ‘non-descript’ everyman walking with a computer bag that does not carry a computer look. And in this Zee5 Original film, the look works beautifully because Vinay Pathak plays Bansi Keswani, a small-time chartered accountant who files income-tax returns for an official’s wife and kids. As he says, ‘Phamily’.

His own ‘phamily’ comprises a wife, Pooja Keswani (played by an equally understated Gul Panag), and a son Amit Keswani (not a big role, he is a teenager who leaves the room when his dad shows up at home, calls his mom when the cops show up at home).

Actually the CBI shows up at home looking for papers connecting to money laundering for a flyover construction. Bansi Keswani looks horrified: I’m holding an eviction notice from the bank for being unable to pay my home EMI, and you’re checking my home for Rs1,200 crore cash?

Of course they don’t find anything, but it looks like Keswani’s luck has run out. Because one of his clients - a builder named Neeraj Sinha (played by Arif Zakaria) - who is meticulous about writing down the details of each cheque he has signed on the book flap, finds three cheques missing. Worried, he calls the police and they search every employee. Then the cops realise that Keswani had visited the office. He could have stolen the cheques when Mr Sinha stepped out to take a phone call. And we are alarmed at seeing Keswani rush off to the bank after he leaves Sinha’s office, and how he gets rattled because the bank is closed. Even at the office, Keswani looks like he’s eyeing things on Sinha’s table. So shady, you know the cops are going to show up at his office.

The cops arrest Keswani because the missing cheques are found at Keswani’s office! The cheques are made to Keswani! Three cheques for Rs50 lakh each, which makes a total of Rs1.5 crore.

What follows is a court case where you become the judge. You can see both sides of the argument. The cops found the missing cheques, Keswani needs money desperately, Sinha has trusted Keswani to bring large amounts of cash from the bank before, the cheques are bearer cheques, and the handwriting expert says that the signature is forged. But you can also see that the cops just blustered into the office and threatened a meek man when asked if they had a search warrant.

Ranvir Shorey is a good actor (recently we watched him play the villain in the series Tabbar), and he plays the senior prosecutor Savak Jamshedji. I hated the weird accent Ranvir adopts for the role, but he manages to keep it through the film and is consistent. The young lawyer who plays defence counsel Birbal Choudhary, is a newcomer, Rohan Vinod Mehra (yes, the son of Vinod Mehra the actor). The young lad has a good screen presence and delivers his dialog with confidence. Thanks to a tight script, there’s no unnecessary histrionics on display. This is a good launch for a young lad.

The two lawyers in court are a treat to watch. Sometimes you think that Keswani is super guilty, and at others you feel like he’s being framed because he is the weakest one of the lot. The young lawyer tries all kinds of schemes to prove that his client is innocent of cheque forgery and stealing from his client. It is interesting how close he comes to getting a man to confess to his crime, but the clever prosecutor cuts him to size.

You will enjoy how the story slowly spins a clearer and clearer picture with the help of the rest of the cast like the CBI superintendent (Shivraj Walvekar), Vidhi Chitalia (female cop friend Manali to the young lawyer). The young lawyer knows a hacker friend who helps him, and the judge himself all make for a tightly knit story. Thankfully, even the setting is simple: the courtroom, Keswani’s office and home, Neeraj Sinha’s office and home and place for the young lawyer to meet the female cop and the hacker friend… Plus, a couple more places which might act as a spoiler. Why do I mention the simplicity? Because this story, so simply told, works better than many shows and movies with fancy budgets and foreign locales…And the twist in the end? Superb! Watch it!