A Wednesday!Bollywood movie review
Title: A Wednesday!
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw, Gaurav Kapoor, Chetan Pandit, Virendra Saxena, Snehal Dhabi, Kali Prasad Mukherjee, Rohitash Gaud, Mukesh Bhatt (II), Rajendra Chawla, Vijay Bhatia, Parag Tyagi, Aayam Mehta, Alok Narula, Parth, Seema Malik.
If the Diwali week is the REINCARNATION week then, 5th September, 2008 is going to be the terrorist day. Two movies on terrorism: The Hijack, A Wednesday! have been released today and one of them is definitely not going to do well but I can bank on that it is not going to be A Wednesday! First and foremost, you have all seen the trailer of A Wednesday! and most you have shrugged off thinking that it is going to be another boring terrorist movie. WRONG! The trailer will mislead you. A Wednesday! is not just any typical terrorist movie.
Bollywood critics were very much upset that the movie industry could not churn out good movies in the first six months of the current year but the second half of 2008 looks great so far. We have Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Rock On!!, Aamir, Jannat and last but not least, A Wednesday!
So what is the A Wednesday! about? It is about the power of common man. A country can have law, it can have police force and armed forces but it is the common people, who hold the true key to power and that common man with “No Name and No face†has been superbly played by veteran actor, Naseeruddin Shah. On a peaceful Wednesday, Mumbai Police commissioner, Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher) receives a call from an unknown number. The person on the other side tells him that he has planted six bombs around the city and if his demands are not fulfilled then he would blast them one by one. First, Prakash Rathod tries every trick in his book to catch this guy but he is always one step ahead of the police. Finally, finding no other options, Prakash gives in to his demand but what happens then? That I am not going to reveal here.
Renowned Bollywood movie critic, Taran Adarsh, already gave A Wednesday! a four star rating. He says:
Expect the unexpected in A WEDNESDAY. From the writing point of view to the execution of the written material, writer-director Neeraj Pandey never takes the been-there-seen-that route even once. It does take time to settle down [the multiple stories at the start are not too interesting], but once you do get the hang of things, A WEDNESDAY offers you twist after twist, throws challenge after challenge in those 1.30 hours [yes, it's a short film]. No sub-plots, no songs, no unwanted masala, no unnecessary tracks — A WEDNESDAY has a story to tell and it tells most effectively.
Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher are the two most famous actors in Bollywood. They worked in both commercial and off-beat cinema and found success in both. Rediff says:
Not all actors know how to sink their teeth into an author-backed role since most of them are too busy counting songs and fight sequences or wrapped up in fretting about their ‘entry scene’ to understand the material they are given. As the quietly angry anonymous man with access to technology and explosives Mr Shah seems to know exactly what the writer-director expects from him. And he delivers. The man’s experience as well as his training help him get under the skin of this character so effectively that there are times you can almost forget the name of the actor essaying the role.
Interestingly, Jimmy Shergill gave a great performance in this movie. After lots of struggle, the actor has finally hit the bullseye.
The Economic Times says:
A Wednesday is one of those rare variety films about which one can’t discuss much despite a strong desire for it could hamper your viewing experience as an unapprised audience. It’s a film one wants to rave liberally about but even then you can’t conveniently converse on the instances of acclaim since those are the moments of surreptitious surprise held in reserve by the director. It’s the kind of film that is discussed in detail once it acquires the cult status.
Sindh Today says:
Most of the film cracks the entertainment code through the ongoing dialogue between the cop and the master-blaster, quite in Clint Eastwood and John Malvokich in Wolfgang Petersen’s ‘In The Line Of Fire’, triggering off a thought-provoking chain of ideas on the common man and terrorism and how far the violence of extremism affects the self-worth of the middle class.
The closing lap of the edge-of-the-seat is a clever plot-defining twist, perhaps too clever for its own good.
Buzz 18.com says:
No sub-plots, no songs, no masala – the best part of the film is its tightly knit plot. Naseeruddin’s performance as he calls himself in the film, “voice of the stupid common man” is brilliant. This two-hour-something film has been told in an amazingly precise and gripping manner, while the camera lingers for long periods on Naseer’s face as it goes through a gamut of emotions – anger, confidence, disdain and mortal fear. With Naseer, one of the most refined actors of our times, this is a treat to watch.
On my part, after reading all appraisal showering reviews (which the movie definitely deserves) and going through the synopsis, I have a gut feeling that the story of A Wednesday! might be inspired from Denzel Washington and Clive Owen starrer Inside Man. This movie has a similar story and the ending is also similar. Still, I do not mind because only the main idea has been taken but the presentation is entirely Indian. Like all the reviewers out there, I also agree that A Wednesday! is a brave exceptional effort by writer-director Neeraj Pandey. He and the cast and crew deserve all the praise for their hard work. A Wednesday! is a must watch.
Useful Links:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/A_Wednesday_Movie_Review/articleshow/3447419.cms
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/review/13454/index.html
http://www.sindhtoday.net/south-asia/18206.htm
http://www.realbollywood.com/news/2008/09/wednesday-movie-review.html
http://www.buzz18.com/reviews/movies/review-a-wednesday/79781/0
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/sep/05wed.htm
