Vox populie. Review on Wednesday

Summary:

Walt Disney once said "We have created characters and animated them in the dimensions of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us".

The movie under discussion has proven the same adage beautifully.

Wednesday, the movie make you sit upright on your seat and remain glued to the screen from the moment reel starts rolling till end. Realistic characters, believable situations, relevant star cast and the fact that movie has been released(i dont know if its coincidence or a marketing plot-whatever, it has served its purpose) around same time when common man(yes, in Nasirudin's lingo "the stupid common man") is gripped by fear of being made the target, has brought a sense of involvement among the audience.

Story:

"It could have been me". At the end of the movie when I got out of theatre, I was left wondering and pondering over this question. No movie till date has forced me to ask this question.

The movie rotates around an ordinary senior citizen who has lived his life haunted by insecurities of daily life. To add to these insecurities is the subtle and inconspicious yet very much existant fear of becoming a victim of terrorist activities. There is always a fear of being either the chosen one or fear that a near or dear one may become target of terrorists. the protagonist(This senior citizen) has lived a better part of his life and is believingly frustrated by inaction of administration and their failure in tackling the terrorists and terrorism. Like every other mumbaikar who daily commutes on local and in commuitng make friends with unknown people, the protagonist also developes friendship with another co-passenger. He is not a close friend nor a relative yet this senior citizen's heart reach out for him when he becomes the chose one. In not so recent yet unforgettable Mumbai train bomb blasts, this unknown friend of protagonist loses his life. Protagonist feels anguished at this loss and decides to give perparators of these blasts taste of their own preparation. He decides to take law in his own hands. However it is clearly shown as a last resort and at any moment in the movie the action has not been glorified or justified, albeit the protagonist reasons it out with the commissioner(Anupam Kher). In opening scene of movie, Naseerudin Shah(Shah henceforth) goes to a police station opposite Headquarters of Mumbai Police Station to get a report registered for theft of his wallet. He implants a bomb in bathroom. He makes call to the commissioner and informs him that he has planted six bombs in city and demands for the release of four blood thirsty and'proven-guilty' terrorists. He informs Kher about the bomb in police station and the bomb is found before it can create destruction or lead to loss of life . Shah then asks commssioner to arrange for  these four terrorists to be collected together in one centeral location and then asks them to drop them on one of the newly constucted runway in airport. Shah also arranges for media coverage to make his warning serious. Kher tries tooth and nail to figure out location of Shah but the ATS fails to locate Shah. Desperate to avoid any other major happening, Kher activates administrative and political machinerya nd persuades CM to give him full authority to tackle the situation The way Kher arranges for the same is reflective of tug of war between politicians and adminsitrative officials and is indicative of red tapism and buerecratic tangles in getting work done. After CM reassures Kher of unlimited authroity to tackle the situation, Kher askes police force to follow instructions of Shah till he is located. Kher also calls for help from a hacker to located down the Shah, When questionnaied about his comfortability with the gadgets, hacker mentions outdated gadgates as one reason for slow tracking of Shah, even though he reassures Kher that he will be able to locate him down. The plot reaches its climax when Shah askes Mumbai police to leave the four terrorists near  a bench on the reunway and turn around. However at this moment, a mobile phone rings which was pre fixed beneath the bench. The remaining plot is a complete twist in the tale which I wont mention here in case you are tempted to watch the movie. However would like to mention that till this moment I was also thinking that Shah is trying to help these terrorist getting acquitted. The climax could have been better if the bench was not shown to be rigged immidiatly after mobile starts ringing.

Dialogues:

Dialogues were effective and superbly delievered by the stars. Naserudin shah as a protagonist is able to bring the character to life through his dialogue dilevery. Kher's dialogues are terse yet to the point like the commands as expected from commissioner of police. The poice men are realisticaly crude in handling leads and informers. The character playing CM is also quite believable.

Though there have been quite a couple of movies based on this topic which all of a sudden has seem to taken Bollywood industry by storm, yet this movie deals with this topic in an entirely different platform. This is a story of a common man, a man like you and me who ends up bearing the brunt of terrorist's anguish and administration's indifference. This is the story of a common man taking a  day out of his daily schedule and deciding to tackle terrorists and not the issue of terrorism.

The most influential aspect of the story is although in handling the chracter of Shah. Till end the name of the character played by Shah is not given and is rightly mentioned by Kher in his last dialogue that humans have this tendency to associate religion with the name and the motive.

A brilliantly executed piece of cinema worth spending three precious hours of  my life.