A Wednesday....A Must Watch Experience. Review on Wednesday

We all know what a 9/11, 7/26, 12/26 or 11/7 means. These are dates of disaster. Man engineered or Natural. Now it's the turn of A Wednesday to instill the frustration of a common man agitated with a supremely complacent system. Writer-director Neeraj Pandey makes a stunning statement with a film that boasts of some brilliant performances. And yes at around 90 minutes of edge-of-the-seat excitement, the duration is a big hero of the film.

Plot

A faceless, nameless man (Naseeruddin Shah) grips the city with his super sleuth mobile networked bombs. He wants four dreaded terrorists for the city to be saved from a Big Blast. Mumbai police commisioner Rathod (Anupam Kher) and his team of agile cops like Arif Khan (Jimmy Sheirgill) and Jai Pratap (Aamir Bashir) try to crack the case while the unknown face of terror feeds the media with juicy vignettes of information.

What's Special

Naseeruddin Shah once again proves why he is such a fantastic actor. Be it his fluctuating (between fear and strength of conviction) body language, crisp matter-of-fact dialogue delivery or wry sense of humour, Naseer is a delight to watch. Don't miss the slight sprint to bring back the tomatoe laden bag lest his wife gets angry. Also his speech at the end is loaded with everyday truth of day-to-day reality leaving a lasting impact.

Anupam Kher should quit doing the C Kompany type absurd roles for he is meant only to do A Wednesday. He doesn't act but rather Becomes the character. He is hard yet sensitive, ruthless yet sensible, sharp yet desists from herogiri. His interaction with chief minister while snidely remarking on red tapism is hard hitting in gettng the message across. One of his best performances in the last decade or so. Jimmy Sheirgill as the persecution-free Muslim cop who's known to be trigger happy and fearless, surprises with his hard-nosed cop act. Fuwad Khan's spiffy camera work and Neeraj Pandey's cutting edge dialogues lend a lot of character to this film that is bound to be talked about.

A few shortcomings

The ease with which benches laced with bombs are planted on an air strip in Mumbai is laughable. Why is Naseeruddin Shah not frisked while getting into a police station? Also, if one is pouring out a common man's fears in Mumbai, then it's important that the regional fire breaking out on the supposed 'outsiders' should have also been highlighted.

Why A Wednesday is a significant film?

It starts off on a predictable note but meanders into something totally new and different. The stereotypes are done away with for most parts. There are no inflammatory dialgoues to tantalise the front benchers.

Finally....

A Wednesday is a must watch experience. It's a gripping story told very well. And yes, it makes you think....in a new way!

(I have given 4 stars for there's no facility of 1/2 star...my rating would be 3 1/2)