A Wednesday !

Now this is a complete surprise. And an extremely pleasant surprise, must add. Newer stories are slowly finding their way into plexes of India. Two Fridays ago, PHOONK spoke about the power of Black Magic and last Friday, ROCK ON!! encouraged you to chase your dreams. Both PHOONK and ROCK ON!! didn't boast of A-list actors to lure the audiences in hordes, but the films let the powerful content do the talking.

It's a hat-trick now. The third Friday in succession witnesses the release of A WEDNESDAY. And mark my words, it's the most powerful film to come out of Bollywood in 2008.

Most promos mislead the viewer no end. They promise the moon, the viewer is hooked and very often, they fail to meet the expectations. In this case, the promos are just the tip of the iceberg. This movie has so much to offer than a few vital glimpses highlighted in the promos.

Here's another point that needs to be clarified. A WEDNESDAY is not about the train blasts, nor is it similar to MUMBAI MERI JAAN. Sure, terrorism is the wallpaper here, but A WEDNESDAY talks about the plight and power of the common man, the aam aadmi.

The year has witnessed some supremely talented storytellers make their debut, like Rajkumar Gupta [AAMIR], Kunal Deshmukh [JANNAT] and Abbas Tyrewala [JAANE TU… YA JAANE NA]. Now Neeraj Pandey joins the ranks of directors who, one is confident, will be one of those calling the shots in the future.

A WEDNESDAY works like magic because of its gripping plotline. The journey, right from start to end on a fateful Wednesday, keeps you on tenterhooks. And the culmination to this complex tale is what takes this film to dizzy heights.

In short, A WEDNESDAY is amongst the finest -- and bravest -- films to come out in 2008. Just one word to describe it: Remarkable!

A WEDNESDAY tells the story of certain events that unfold between 2 and 6 p.m. on a Wednesday in Mumbai. Events that do not exist in any record.

Flashback: Prakash Rathod [Anupam Kher], Commissioner of Police, Mumbai gets a call demanding the release of four militants in lieu of information on bombs that the man has planted in various parts of Mumbai. At first, Prakash suspects it to be a crank call, but his doubts are dispelled once he actually finds a bomb planted in the police station right opposite his Police Headquarters.

Prakash Rathod is not the type to give up easily. He gets a team of his best men together and taps all his resources. He even hires a young hacker to help his team trace the calls and also the location of the anonymous caller. Time passes by, but no concrete results are evident. Eventually, Prakash Rathod decides to hand over the militants to the anonymous caller. It is then that events take a bizarre turn.

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.

On the execution front, the camera movement [Jimmy Jib], during Naseer's portions specifically, demands your attention. Cinematographer Fuwad Khan's output is top class even when he captures a chase [Jimmy Sheirgill] on a busy Mumbai street. The editor [Shree Narayan Singh] deserves lavish praises for giving shape to this thriller. During the finale specifically -- Anupam is driving towards the location, while Naseer is packing his stuff -- the parallel scenes are juxtaposed brilliantly. The background score [Sanjay Chowdhury] is stirring.

When your film has two of the finest talents sharing screen space, it only heightens the curiosity. Naseeruddin Shah has delivered several remarkable performances over the decades and the one in A WEDNESDAY easily makes its way into his Top 5 works when you recall his body of work. His outburst in the end -- when he talks about the plight of the common man -- is astounding. The entire audi, one is confident, would break into a deafening applause at this master sequence.

Anupam Kher is equally dynamic. Watch the cold look or catch him face-to-face with Naseer in the finale, if there's one actor who could stand up to a giant of an actor, it's Kher. An outstanding performance indeed!

Every performance in A WEDNESDAY is charged. Jimmy Sheirgill is first-rate as a volatile cop. Of late, the actor has been wasted in insipid roles and it's about time film-makers take a note of this talented actor. Aamir Bashir is superb. Again, this actor has never got his due in feature films. It's our loss, not his! Deepal Shaw plays her part confidently. Chetan Pandit, as the Chief Minister, is effective. Ditto for the actor who plays the main terrorist - Kali Prasad Mukherjee.

On the whole, A WEDNESDAY is cinema at its best. It may not be a Kinng-sized entertainer to lure the audiences in hordes and set the box-office afire, but A WEDNESDAY does pack in king-sized punch. Do yourself a favour: Watch A WEDNESDAY.

IndiaFM

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.

From the outset it initiates as a basic edge-of-the-seat action-thriller where an anonymous individual (Naseeruddin Shah) makes a call to the Commissioner of Police Rathod (Anupam Kher) and warns him of six bombs being planted in the city of Mumbai. He threatens of detonating them if his demand isn’t met, which is emancipation of four hardcore anti-national terrorists. The caller is extremely insightful in his operation and always a step ahead of the equipped and efficient police force. The film progresses as a one-upmanship race between the two, detailing the intricacies in the techniques of the trade.

A Wednesday isn’t in those conventional potboiler categories where a hero goes fighting single-handedly against the villains or munificent cinematic liberties are attempted to accomplish an assignment. The minute specification incorporated in the script adds conviction to the trade-off that sets the film a class apart.

Neeraj Pandey’s well-etched screenplay adopts concise character introductions (without pointlessly probing much into their past), convincing buildup, an amazing pre-climax (where the suspense unfolds), a compelling climax (aftermath) and a satisfying conclusion. As a director, his hold on the script is admirable. At duration of 100 minutes, the film is crisply and effectively edited and appreciatively devoid of reels of redundancy. Fuwad Khan’s calculative camera movements influences subconsciously.

Though you are unremittingly glued to the screen throughout its runtime, it’s the superlatively intelligent pre-climax that catches you unaware. It’s at this juncture that the social genre of the film surfaces, which was so far camouflaged behind a thriller format. The meticulously worded common man’s discourse, here, addresses every single question that might arise in the audience mind out of ambiguity, if any. Thoughtfully this common man is not given the stamp of any religion for his rebellious actions. A Wednesday reminds of the prohibited path that the common man had to opt for to revolt against the defunct system like in Rang De Basanti.

The film doesn’t fall prey of the usual setback of thrillers starting off impressively but losing momentum midways. It’s consistent all through and the imaginative culmination imparts the film that extra sheen. One might attempt to find minor errors in the execution with some extra emphasis but the emotional appeal of the screenplay overpowers all these insignificant inaccuracies.

The film is blessed with fine performances with Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher topping the list as competent opponents. Jimmy Sheirgill and Aamir Bashir as fellow officers are equally adept and gracefully natural. Deepal Shaw as a news TV reporter is quite capable and her voice is dubbed with a typical accent characteristic of the profession.

A Wednesday has an unforeseen treatment and an unassuming demeanour. Don’t get deceived by its unpretentious title. This one is strongly recommended!

Indiatimes

We've had two fairly high profile movies released in the past few months that have dealt with the subject of 'terrorism in the big city'. One (Mumbai Meri Jaan [Images]) was based around a real event; the other (Aamir) supposedly sprang from the imagination of a man who was surprised to learn that a very similar film existed elsewhere in the world. A Wednesday fits into this sub-genre but is greatly removed from the other two.


To attempt to synopsise the film is to give too much away even though the narrator of the story, retiring Commissioner of Police Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher [Images], in fine fettle) tells us exactly how the film will end within the first few minutes.

The story he tells revolves around a fateful Wednesday in the hours between 2 and 6 pm, when a man (Naseeruddin Shah [Images], at his intimidating best) called him up and let him know him that he had planted bombs in five places around the city, set to go off at 6:30 p.m. The only way for the cops to successfully find all the bombs and defuse them, is to do as the man says and to give him what he wants.

And that is all I'm going to tell you about the story.

Faith is a terribly powerful thing -- to have and to lose. It has sent men into battle for centuries, it has ripped families apart, driven wedges through friendships and it has ensured that no country, government or rule of law is so secure that it cannot be disrupted or destroyed by the employment of a faith-based directive. Faith, as well as the loss of faith, is at the core of A Wednesday. Movies like A Wednesday throw up more questions about marketing and communication than they do about good versus bad cinema. And so I wonder whether this film will find its audience.


I can see why Aamir was a sexy film to promote. The photogenic leading man, the iconic red briefcase, the vastly unexplored urban terrain that was highlighted in the film, all of those elements served the film well in its search for an audience. Apart from its ridiculous title, A Wednesday is a far superior film -- in its content as well as end result.

Pacifists say that a movie is not made alone and that it is only through the strongest contributions from everyone involved that a film achieves excellence. I disagree.

No amount of praise would be enough for the performance of one man above all others in this endeavour. Naseeruddin Shah continues to quietly be one of the country's finest actors and as the spine of A Wednesday he helps this movie take credit for telling a story as well as taking a stand.

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.

As his foil, Anupam Kher essays the role of the top cop with enough panache to make me want to request that he be given the job for real. Might help citizens sleep at night knowing that this world-weary man had an eye on things. Aamir Bashir and Jimmy Shergill [Images] essay their roles efficiently and Deepal Shaw [Images] is not given enough to do to make her a significant irritant. So good plot, effective dialogue and stellar performances are the trifecta that ensures an above average debut for writer and director Neeraj Pandey, at least on a qualitative level.

As someone who has been nourished on a steady diet of Hollywood-made terrorist dramas, I cringed a few times at some of the more ham-handed moves and maneuvers that dot the sparse landscape of this movie and I have complaints about the film's length (repetitive scenes, not always effective setting up of characters) as well as its denouement. That being said, A Wednesday manages to deliver a decent body blow (while I continue to yearn for a knockout) for the cause of smart entertainment.

Like I said earlier, faith is a powerful thing. And if it motivates you to go watch A Wednesday this weekend, most of you are certain to leave the theatres thinking, 'this is exactly what is needed,' even if you don't say it out loud.

And that is the scariest thought of all.

Rediff