A Wednesday (2008)

It’s long since I got attached to a Hindi Movie, which has moved into a trend where the box-office records directly parallel to the number of star-cast who make up the list.  Bad plot work and cheap imitation of Hollywood style, had made the movie-buff in me to concentrate more on the Hollywood genre.  But, I should say 2008 certainly is a blessing in disguise for the sagging Bollywood industry.

Top of the Pick is A Wednesday, a movie which has a strong plot-work (written & directed by Neeraj Pandey), further breathed life by the powerful acting of Naseerudeen Shah, and Anupam Kher.  The story revolves around a Common Man who takes the entire Mumbai city into a hostage crisis with demands, which attributes him as an ally to Terrorism.  But, there is a twist in the storyline at the end of it when the real motive is revealed (even though, it isn’t hard to guess it with the initial scenes of the movie).

The character of “Common Man” as portrayed by Naseerudin Shah, simply steals the show, with a powerful performance, with his dialogue delivery, calm and cool acting, and maintaining a clear line between being an extremist and commonist.  Anupam Kher does his bit with his portrayal of the Commission of Police, and as a narrator of the entire storyline.  The telephonic conversation between Shah & Kher at the end, leaves us with a lot of questions over the society as we perceive it.

The name of the Common Man is never revealed, and it is rightly noted at the end by Commissioner, that he wouldn’t reveal it, as people tend to wrongly attach a motive with the religion.

Overall a power-packed performance and strong message to the community as a whole, makes it a must-watch movie of 2008.  Hopefully the administrators and the government authorities will take a note from this movie, and would do the needful to avoid the story happening in reality.

Here are few reviews about the Movie, which I enjoyed reading on the Blog-O-Sphere:

• http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/review/13454/index.html (English)
• http://cablesankar.blogspot.com/2008/09/wednesday.html (Tamil)

More about the Movie:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wednesday
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1280558/