A Revenge Saga. Review on Wazir

A carefully played pawn could end up becoming a Wazir – an illustration used of a pawn in chess becoming a Wazir after successfully reaching the other end.

Story: Danish(Farhan Akhtar) is an officer in the Anti-Terrorist Squad(ATS) in Delhi married to Ruhana(Aditi Rao Hydari).  While on an outing with family, he notices a wanted terrorist and follows him without back-up. His vehicle is attacked with gunfire wherein his 4 year old daughter gets shot and killed.  Devastated, he blames himself for the loss and his wife decides not to stay together. His endeavor to seek revenge of the killers ends up in him getting suspended from his job. Omkarnath Dhar(Amitabh Bachchan), a Pandit from Kashmir runs a Chess Academy and coaches school children. He lost both legs in an accident and also his wife. His daughter was killed by a renowned politician Yazaad Qureshi(Manav Kaul) in Kashmir. Having once taught chess to Danish’s daughter, Panditji(Amitabh) becomes friends with Danish who enjoys this new found friendship. From being a novice at chess Danish now becomes an expert.  He learns of the killing of Panditji’s daughter and starts an investigation – though being suspended.  In retaliation Panditji is attacked by Wazir(Neil Nitin Mukesh). Danish promises Panditji that he would be taken care of and nothing would happen to him. However, Panditji is killed by Wazir. Unable to keep his promise, Danish is determined to kill Wazir and the Politician. Mission accomplished, he realizes that it was the pawn who ultimately became the Wazir and he was exploited by the plot scripted by his friend.

Cast Performance:  The lead characters were aptly supported by Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar. Aditi Rao Hydari looked beautiful and her presence was refreshing. Neil Nitin Mukesh had a very brief but impactful role. John Abraham as an ATS officer complemented his brief character, which helped Danish(Farhan) seek revenge. Manav Kaul as the politician had great depth in his character. Rest of the supporting cast was nicely picked and gave a fine performance.

Pros: The USP of the film is the lead cast Amitabh and Farhan. Cinematography by Sanu Varghese was excellent. Dialogues were meaningful and impressive, written by Abhijeet Deshpande and Gazal Dhaliwal. Bejoy Nambiar’s direction was good and so was the editing by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

Cons: The script may have looked good on paper but its execution flawed at several places. Knowing that the script is written by the Producer and Director of ‘Parinda’, it did not match up to the viewers expectations. The screenplay lacked consistency.  While some scenes were nicely executed with reasoning and application of mind, there were a few which were disappointing, such as – with Panditji having lost his legs and confined to a chair, it would not be possible for him to single handedly carry out his plan without the help of someone. The politician has three tier security – the army, the police and his personal security and yet the ease with which Danish carries out his mission with the help of his colleague(John Abraham) seems unconvincing. Towards the climax, Danish is told, he has only 30 seconds to get out as the Commandos had closed in and yet there is a 5 minute casual dialogue with flashback which I felt was carelessly executed.  There were many places where no attention was given to details which failed to create the desired impact. The success of the plot was merely on the premise that all the chickens walked in a straight line which the Director made you believe it did. The film though started off good was shabbily wrapped up.

Songs: The storyline was grim so no room for any fast music. Of the slow numbers, except for ‘Tere Bin’ sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal, none of the other songs left their mark.

Conclusion: The success of the film solely rests on the shoulders of Amitabh and Farhan who gave a splendid performance. The film is reasonably paced and successful in engaging the viewer but is predictable at times. The runtime is roughly around 1 hour 45 minutes and this includes slow paced songs and emotional scenes, thus leaving the audience dissatisfied and wanting more. Though the movie could have been improved upon, with the content and type of entertainment it offers which is Thrill, Action and Suspense, it could be easily passed off as a one-time watch.