Film Review : Wazir

I saw the news that the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had watched Bejoy Nambiar’s movie “Wazir” with its cast including producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, writer Abhijat Joshi and actors Farhan Akhtar and Aditi Rao Hydari. I have been criticizing Kejriwal  for a while on various issues. So, I decided to watch the movie to see what kind of movie he endorses.

Farhan Akhtar (Danish Ali), who played the role of an ATS officer, had lost his daughter while chasing a dreaded terrorist. His wife Aditi Rao Hydari (Ruhana) held him responsible for the loss of her child, and moved away from his life. Farhan, too, held himself guilty and tried to commit suicide. Just before he was going to shoot himself, the wheelchair-bound Pandit Omkarnath Dhar (Amitabh Bachchan) made entry and eventually got sucked into Farhan's world. The twists and turns of the story began from here,  coming to a menacing figure called Wazir, trailing blood and gore and death.

The film used an actual chess board to tell us how to make moves. There was a nice, even if a little underlined, metaphor at work too: life is like a game of chess, and we are all pawns at the mercy of the crafty `wazir’. Manav Kaul played the role of a  power-hungry politician, and Neil Nitin Mukesh made a comeback, even if sketchy and a trifle contrived.

Now, let me come to the critical analysis. Farhan Akhtar might have looked a bit different with a well-trimmed moustache, but his acting was as mediocre as ever. In the romantic scenes with Aditi, he looked awful. His voice quality was not good.

Aditi didn't have much chance to show her acting skill in this film. But whatever chance she got as a distraught mother, she did a good job by letting her silence speak. This is the first film of Aditi that I have seen. She looked beautiful in the film.

Amitabh Bachchan, the Sean Connery of Indian movies, completely fitted into the role of an old man who had lost his legs and his wife in a serious road accident, and had reason to believe that his daughter’s demise -- blamed on a fall on a staircase at the home of the welfare minister Yazaad Qureishi (Manav Kaul) -- had actually been a case of murder.

But the main fault line of the film lied in the very weak story. It had glaring flaws. The terrorists didn't attack Farhan when he lost his daughter. It was he who went to chase them carrying his daughter with him. No ATS officer, or for that matter, any sane person would do that.

How a paralysed man, who could not move without a wheelchair, could drive, tie threads and plant bombs -- then jump over the wall (because he couldn't have walked out through the door due to traps being implanted ) and go back to the hospital will remain as mystery.

If you love asking critical and embarrassing questions, this is the film you must watch, because you will have a filed day after watching the film.

I could not understand how could Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who has produced films like Parinda, 1942: A Love Story, Munna Bhai film series (Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and Lage Raho Munna Bhai), 3 Idiots and PK, produce such a mediocre film!

Therefore, I shall give a thumbs down, and my overall rating would be 3.5 out of 10.

Pictures from internet