Review:
“We are resilient by force not by choice” says the common man.
Yes we are Mr.Pandey and you have projected that principle of a democratic society quite beautifully. A treasure is beautiful when hidden. But it’s still beautiful when discovered and continues to be beautiful for eternity to the seeker of the treasure . If you seek good cinema, then A Wednesday (AW) is your treasure. You’ll love it the first time. The second time, you’ll love it more. And till now I am speaking about the quality of the movie sans the plot. Surprise it is to note that Neeraj Pandey, who can be proud of himself to be the creator and script writer of AW, is a debutante.
AW is that beautiful piece of work that refuses to go out of your head for some time after watching it - A rare occasion, where the audience will not leave the cinema hall, without giving a standing ovation. At least I did not.
The movie introduces the characters of the movie in a parallel and linear narrative style. It opens with Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher), the Commissioner of Mumbai Police and the narrator staring at the Mumbai City (which is another character in this movie - a very vital one that too) pondering over a question posed by many on the verge of his retirement that is to take place the next day - "What is the most interesting case you have come across in your life?".....and the one case that precedes all other in his monumental career - One that has never been recorded, cannot be recorded and involved the lives of five people – himself, two astute and honest police officers a news hungry press reporter and HIM ........whom he quite frustratingly refers to as a bastard - is the one the movie is about. A case that lasted barely 41/2 hours.
Slowly as the credits roll, the plot diversifies to introduce Jai Pratap Singh (Aamir Bashir), a doting husband, loving father and a dutiful but smart police inspector, Aarif Khan (Jimmy Shergill) a no-nonsense, attitude driven, highly individualistic, drastically violent yet clever and honest police officer who due to his violent streak and disrespect to the police procedure has had the trait of being constantly shifted from one division to another. Then follows Naina Roy (Deepal Shaw), a self obsessed, news hungry media reporter who would go to any extreme to tarnish what existed sometime ago known as media ethics. The director by some smart scripting and crisp editing magnifies these characteristics of the three people in a very short span of time which keep the minds of the audience busy in trying to guess the plot.
In between these introductions, we get to meet Mr. Rajesh Kumar Sharma aka Jignesh Seth aka (most importantly) Unknown Number (Naseeruddin Shah). No no.... he is not multi faced nor competing with Kamal Haasan to beat his Dasavatharam feat. His is one of the most fascinating character Hindi Cinema has ever seen and it is better if not revealed to those who haven’t seen the movie. For those who have seen it, I guess they would accept with my views as well.
On a quite boring Wednesday, when the Commissioner’s most prolific event has till early hours of his work been trying to convince an action hero of bollywood that he need not worry about a call from one whom the actor thinks is an aide of a Mumbai Don but one that the commissioner actually knows is a local who has made a crank call; when Jai Singh and Aarif seem to be going through what is routine in their respective lives, the Unknown number makes a call to the Commissioner Prakash Rathod – the one that turns the day into one of the most extraordinary days of not just Prakash’s life but also Jai’s, Aarif’s and Naina’s. The person at the other end – Naseeruddin calls at 1400 hours in the afternoon to say plainly....”Please listen carefully, I have planted 5 bombs all over Mumbai and they will go off at 1830 hours- But this can be avoided if I get what I want.”.
One first has to congratulate UTV Movies & Friday productions to have trusted on a script where there are no songs, stunts, no glamorous women and most importantly where the protagonists are way beyond their 50’s.
With respect to performances, this comment would be something Mr. Naseeruddin would have got quite bored of by now yet such a perfect and subtle portrayal of a character that is so tempting to be played is only so natural to him and that’s trademark Naseeruddin we know. On the other hand Mr. Anupam Kher, by rendering such a powerful performance makes one feel why he even did movies such as DDLJ, DTPH and Jaan-E-Mann. He has time and again with performances such as this and the one in “Mein Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara”, proved that he has been so underutilized. I mean, didn’t people realize about him even after “Daddy”? But then, what a performance Mr. Anupam - marvellous.
Jimmy Shergill and Aamir are perfect casting and they play their role with elan. Jimmy especially gives a restrained performance. Personally I thought Deepal Shaw was probably not the best choice. But then again thats only a perspective. Deepal has done a good job after all as the enthusiastic news reporter.
Last but not the least - the Director and Script writer - Neeraj Pandey. The first thing that strikes any ardent filmgoer in this movie is the precedence he has given to the editor in the credits over the cinematographer. That proves how much editing has been the backbone of the movie. The script has a totally no nonsense approach never once diverting its path to do something in the name of making the movie anything close to a masala pot pouri. The dialogues are so hard hitting that guilt never seems to get enough space in one’s heart.
The director in such a short span takes a dig at anything and everything an urban citizen wants to – Non-chalant approach of the police department (but giving a hint to normal citizens that ‘hey don’t think police are a bunch of fools who know nothing about the technological developments’), red-tapism, how simple and misusable mobile technology, computers and internet are, how moral-less the fourth estate has evolved into - how they can make a mount out of a mole and vice-versa, how the reel life action heroes are worthless cowards in real life, the horrible role religion could play in influencing minds towards violence and most importantly how sad and spineless, the common man has turned out to be. Mr. Neeraj, I am still pinching myself after three viewings of your movie that it’s your first movie. Bravo! Kudos!
Pros :
- Almost Flawless Screenplay
- Hard Hitting Dialogues
- Riveting Performances
- Crisp Editing
- Mature handling of controversial issues
Cons :
- Clichéd BG Score
- Bollywoodish end to the antagonists
- Aarif’s character reminding one of many Sunny Deol’s police characters, though that could be a bit hard on Jimmy Shergill’s performance which is very commendable
- Commissioner Rathod seems to be unbelievably prepared to face the situation taking all the perfect decisions - Too perfect to be realistic
Overall: GET YOURSELF A COPY OF THE MOVIE ..... PLEASE.
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