India, Sept. 5 -- If Helen of Troy's face was the one that launched a thousand ships, then Manoj Bajpayee's is the one that can make you believe the impossible. Give him a script and he'll have you convinced that aliens are running the local paan shop, and you would still be first in line to try it.

Inspector Zende comes across as a distant cousin of Manoj's Srikant Tiwari from The Family Man, perhaps because the territory feels so familiar to him. The story follows the titular protagonist on his mission to catch murderer Carl Bhojraj (obviously Charles Sobhraj), with the pursuit unfolding as a quirky comedy.

Written and directed by Chinmay Mandlekar, the film plays out like a classic snake-and-mongoose battle, which is exactly how Zend...