A Wednesday

A Bollywood movie which can keep you thrilled for 1.5 hrs – its a eighth/ninth wonder?! 

Last night only I was watching Peacemaker (2007) at HBO and initially found it thrilling, though later quite disappointing. But it was a long time since I had watched any action/thriller English movie and found it a nice break from Drama/Comedy genre. I was wondering then why we can’t have such movies in India. Which are original, fool-proof, little believeable. I mean if I am watching a James Bond movie, I am prepared to watch him come scratchless out of a no-man-came-alive-out-of-it scene. But if I watch say, Munich, I see the hot-shots getting hurt too. Here, Krrish is like Batman, Superman, Spiderman – all in one. Well, as a viewer, thats a little too much to take. I would rather watch a fantasy movie over it. And thats one of the best action thrillers bollywood has to offer. Why don’t action films made in India also fit into sub-genre so that I know what I am going for?! Sarfarosh was one of the films in which a policeman also got hurt, he was also hospitalised. In that sense it was a pathbreaking movie from Indian cinema. 

A Wednesday is also a fresh change from the typical Hindi movies. It keeps the audience stuck to their seats for 3/4th of the movie. Which is a major achievement I would say. Also, a very mature prespective is taken on the most-common-theme in Indian cinema currently. Junta ki aag. Junta ka halla. Humara kartavya. Many years back we had films about desh bhakti as a residual feeling from the freedom struggle movement. Now we can’t dance on the same tune. So we have movies like RDB, halla bol (some others whose names i have forgotten) and Rock On which talks about taking control of your life. RDB has a hint of desh prem, but it was the last sell. A Wednesday is so completely different because: 

• thankfully, there are no youngsters with a rush of blood and little imagination in picture. The movie is about oldies. Infact, people who have high-on-adreline-youngsters for their children. Love to see them in action.
• its fool-proof. you don’t find yourself wondering why the police inspector didn’t do this or that, or why this situation wasn’t handled in the obvious way. 
• the script/plot is new and intelligent. It knows how the audience will react at what point and changes its course accordingly. 

I was quite impressed by the movie. However, a little disappointed in the end. Probably thats why it gets 4.5 stars and not 5. Don’t read ahead if you haven’t watched the flick, it contains spoilers. 

The speech on the state of helplessness of the stupid common ordinary man was over-done. The beautiful movie with as many words as action till now was suddenly spoiled by too many words. The interaction between Police-commissionar and No-name man became artifical and drill-like. You suddenly realise you are watching a movie. The movie also proved that the man could kill 3 people with just a spoof of bomb and little intelligence and police couldn’t even prevent it. What if those 3 people were innocent citizens of the country. Or important diplomats. Or CEOs of companies. What he had done was wrong in the face of law. If we harp so much about law-n-order, lets just follow it. Rule by rule. No exceptions. Even if it is for the larger good. Everyone has his/her reasons. Thats the problem. I was personally inclined to see those terrorists dead. I was hoping Arif would kill them. But, not like this. Police was simply shown to be helpless. I would have liked it if the no-name man would have now included the police (keeping politicians still excluded) in killing off the terrorists. After all, policeman do die during arrests of terrorists and in encounters.

Apart from that minor detail, the movie is superb. A must watch.