Starring:

Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Deepal Shaw etc.

Synopsis:

A Wednesday! is a Bollywood thriller written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. The plot revolves around the events of a particular day, when a mysterious unnamed man plants a series of bombs in the city of Mumbai, and threatens to blow it up if his demands are not met.

Review:

A Wednesday! is a solid, effective thriller that continues the trend of making fresh, new movies in Bollywood. This is a surprising shift from more typical crime thrillers that place too much importance on fast cars, beautiful women and cool sunglasses. Though the film may seem new to Indian cinema, it does have a touch of Hollywood tossed in here and there. Think of it as a mixture of Heat and Phone Booth, but set in Mumbai. I thought the subject matter pretty relevant to the times, given the recent spate of attacks devastating cities around India at the moment.

The best part of this movie has to be the performances of the lead pair, Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher. They are both recognized as excellent actors, yet their careers are dotted with tremendously silly roles that completely waste their talents. So it is refreshing to see them both at the top of their game in a mainstream film. The film moves at a very rapid pace, and is only around a hour and a half long, which I must remind you is very short for a Bollywood movie. Props must go to the editor, as I could hardly find any extra baggage in the movie. Thankfully, there are no songs, but the background score more than makes up for it, although there was a little too much use of the electric guitar in there.

I believe the film was also meant to be some sort of political commentary along with being a thriller. At the risk of giving away too many spoilers, I loved the concept of the ‘common man’ - watch the movie and you’ll know what I mean. I also appreciated that the filmmakers never provide the name of Naseeruddin Shah’s character, as revealing a the name would also reveal the character’s religion, which would lead to more unwarranted implications. It also plays off the inefficiency of the police force, and the over-eagerness of popular news media.

On the negative side, as I said before, it does sometimes seem a little derivative of some Hollywood films. There was also Jimmy Shergill’s character, who has nothing much to do except look tough and run around frantically, and I would have liked a little more insight into him. The ending was also quite tame. Given the excellent build-up, the final confrontation between the two leads is not what you would expect. Still, the final product is good enough to forgive these weak points.

On the whole, A Wednesday! is a sharp, well written movie with excellent performances and dialogue. It serves as both a crime thriller and a statement about the current state of affairs, and is an excellent watch.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

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