BejoyNambiar, returns as director after DAVID. Backed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra as producer and co-writer, Wazir comes with high expectations. Undoubtedly so.
With an all star cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Aditi Rao Hydari, ManavKaul, Neil Nitin Mukesh and a special appearance from John Abraham, this film is bound to be high on the audience’s expectation radar. Plus its very rare that one gets an opportunity to watch an exciting thriller backed by such capable people.
Without any spoilers, Danish Ali (Farhan) is a suspended ATC cop, because he killed the terrorist responsible for the death of his daughter. During his mourning, he meets Panditji (Amitabh) who shares a similar loss and tries to bond over that with Danish. He then reveals that this daughter was actually murdered by the Welfare Minister and there seems to be a cover up. Danish wants to help in his capacity. The plot moves onto a game of chess being played and the viewer left to realise the moves of each piece.
The plot of the film is good, no doubt, but somehow it suffers from poor editing. So in this 104 minute film there are instances where you feel that the pace should have been faster or some unwanted songs could have been chopped off, but that would have been the entire role of Aditi.
ManavKaul is good in his role, especially in his scene with Farhan. The supporting cast is effective. John’s character as a special appearance doesn’t make sense at all. Neil is good in his limited capacity.
The film is let down by average writing and average direction. Which is what stops it from being a nice film, to a classic thriller. Cinematic liberties being taken for the sake of it, without any rationale. How does Danish manage to repeatedly use the police machinery whilst in suspension at the drop of a hat.Anjum Sharma’s Sartaj, best friend cum colleague in his earnest performance does everything under the sun, including tapping a minister’s calls, the same minister, whom Danish wasn’t even allowed to question by his superiors. Guess after working on the script for so long and then rewriting it on the editing table, somewhere Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Chopra lost perspective.
The background music by Rohit Kulkarni is excellent and enhances the mystery in the film.
Farhan and Amitabh really play their parts to perfection. As the no nonsense cop and grieving father, Farhan does convey his helplessness to his surroundings really well. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the other father in mourning but who wants to do something about it, which Bachchan does so beautifully. His paused dialogues with that hint of mischief in his eyes keeps you wonder throughout.
Yet, the film ends on a rather predictable note which will leave not a hard hitting impact, but you will leave with a smile.
Rating : 3/5
By: Yusuf Poonawala
