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By Joginder Tuteja, December 16, 2008 - 16:30 IST
MOVIE DETAILS
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Sheirgill, Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala, Anjum Rizvi, Shital Bhatia
Music: Sanjoy Chowdhary
Lyrics: Irshad Kamil
THE FILM
A Wednesday clearly stands as THE most topical movie of 2008. When half a dozen movies with terrorism as its theme (Mission Istaanbul, Contract, Black & White etc.) were released in the year gone by, the only movie which actually spoke from the point of view of a common man was A Wednesday. It didn't get into pseudo intellectual talks about how a terrorist is born, it didn't propose a solution, and it didn't hit on politicians or cops. Instead, it plain and simple raised the voice of a common man and asked a few plain and simple questions - 'How a man on the street should react with all the bombs and bullets around him? What is his fault? Whom does he look at?'
The questions that everyone is asking today post 26/11. Ironically, this horrific day in the history of India too was 'a Wednesday'.
Of course Neeraj Pandey wouldn't have thought that his screenplay would turn out to be a reality, though in bits and pieces, in a few months after the film's release. A man [Naseeruddin Shah] keeps a bag (supposed to be full of RDX) at a busy Mumbai railway station and walks away as silently as he came. Later he challenges the Commissioner to find bombs that he has placed at all strategic locations in Mumbai. In a film made of numerous twists and turns literally every 10 minutes, A Wednesday stays on to be very much a thriller from the start till the end credits.
In the times when we complain of near 3 hour long films bringing in a yawn and sometimes even 2 hour duration being intolerable, A Wednesday packs in so much in those 95 minutes. Right from the brilliantly executed opening sequence (when Naseer plants the bags, first at the railway station and then the police station) till the nail biting end (Naseer and Anupam Kher coming face to face), the film maintains an even, fast and steady pace. In fact never once do you feel that A Wednesday is a work of a first time director and the brilliance of his execution lies in the fact that you admire the movie only further when you see it the second time. Credit here also goes to the razor sharp editing which doesn't give audience even 30 seconds to think in a tangential direction.
The movie's brilliance can be imagined from the fact that you are left guessing about what next would follow at every juncture. Unpredictability is the name of the game and it would be wrong to say that A Wednesday is a cat and mouse game. Reason? The mouse here, Naseer, is always at least a couple of steps ahead of the cat with Anupam Kher mainly following behind rather than outsmarting him at any point of time. Meanwhile Jimmy Sheirgill and Aamir Bashir lend a good supporting hand and keep themselves involved in the proceedings rather than being bystanders.
In Bollywood, we have complained quite a number of times that we tend to go off tangent when it comes to handling a subject and loose our way somewhere down the plot. This doesn't happen even once in A Wednesday that sticks to its plot and never looses focus. Yes, there are light, tense, angry and exasperated moments embellished in the narrative but that only gives the right 'utaar-chadaav' to the film which oscillates for all the right reasons rather than being one-dimensional.
Director Neeraj Pandey makes an excellent start at the very beginning of his career and it would hardly be surprising when he and his film poses a challenge to the biggest of blockbusters of the year gone by when the awards for the best of the best are announced early 2009. Best Film (A Wednesday), Best Director and Story/Screenplay writer (Neeraj Pandey), Best Actor (Naseeruddin Shah), Best Editor (Shree Narayan Singh), Best Background Music (Sanjoy Chowdhary), Best Cinematography (Fuwad Khan), Best Sound (Rakesh Ranjan) - truly, the film would truly find itself sitting pretty in the Top-5 at the least in every category.
One more point - If Naseeruddin Shah doesn't get a National Award for this film, one would surely wonder what better would any other actor in the year gone by would have done to deserve it!
PACKAGING
Moser Baer makes an exception with this DVD as it packages it rather smartly in a paper and plastic case. What's more, it also throws in a bonus DVD of Shaurya. Indeed a treat for a movie buff!
DURATION
The film's duration is 95 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES
The DVD doesn't come with any special features
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
- Subtitles in English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 and Stereo
PRICE
Rs. 99/=
CONCLUSION
Go, get hold of A Wednesday. 20 years down the line, it would be showcased in your collection as a classic from Bollywood!
 
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