“Wazir” has been promoted as an action thriller but after
watching it you will realize that it is actually an emotional story presented
as a thriller. There is action, there is thrill, but the main story is actually
about the emotional connection between two strangers who are going through
similar pain and loss in their lives and this similarity bonds them as friends
finally.
It is a story about two bereaved persons who have lost
someone very close to their life, their
daughters. The first person is ATS
officer Danish (Farhan Akhtar) who has lost his daughter in an encounter with a
terrorist and later got suspended from his job for killing the same terrorist
without the permission of his higher officials. He is very much grief stricken
and considers himself as guilty for her daughter’s unfortunate death. Even his
wife Ruhana (Aditi Rao Hydari) thinks the same and she has disconnected herself
from Danish. The second person is Omkar Nath Dhar aka Panditji (Amitabh
Bachhan) who teaches chess to little kids. He too has seen very bad phase in
his life. He lost his legs and his wife in a car accident and few years later
he lost his only daughter in a mysterious accident. He believes that his
daughter was actually murdered by the welfare minister Yajad Qureishi (Manav
Kaul). PanditJi wants justice for her daughter but as he is wheel chair bound
so he has his own limits
Danish and Panditjee meet each other accidentally and got
involved in each other’s life gradually. Their bonding became stronger over
some chess matches and Danish finds
himself more engaged in Panditji’s fight
against Querishi for justice as he could identify with the pain of Panditji. In
the meantime enters a mysterious character Wazir(Neil Nitin Mukesh) who calls
himself a representative of Qureishi and gives Panditji life threat for his
protest against Qureishi. Now Danish finds a new aim in his life to search
Wazir and to protect Panditji from him.
Who is Wazir? Will
Danish be able to chase him? Will he be able to save Panditji? That questions
have been answered in the climax. In fact it has been elaborated quite well
like they are telling the story to class five students but the sad thing is you
can predict the answers well ahead of time.
The story is different but it has its own loopholes as a
thriller. This is definitely not a smart
and fast paced thriller. But the
screenplay has been written quite well by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijaat Joshi
which is quite engaging. Although there is not much suspense still you will not
get bored as you are not interested to reveal the truth rather you would like
to get involved in the emotional journey of the characters. There are some
really touchy moments whether it is the between the bonding between Danish and Panditji
or the scenes between Danish and his wife Ruhana. In the chess sequences there
is very smartly written dialogues which tries to make the connection between
life and chess. The dialogues written by Abhijeet Deshpande and Gazal Dhaliwal are very well written specially the ones written
for Mr. Bachhan.
As a director Bejoy Nambiar has handled more complex
subjects earlier and his direction is very stylish. Here too we can see his
signature style during the action sequences.
His direction is quite well and his presentation is engaging.
Among the actors both the leading men are the true gems of
this film. The film totally rests on the broad shoulders of these two talented actors
Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar.
Together they are wonderful. Amitabh
Bachchan has very impressive personality and screen presence and it works
really well for his character who is disabled but still on high spirit about
life. He is too good in his emotional scenes, for example watch him in the
scene when he tells about how he lost his family, it will make you moist eyed.
On the other hand Farhan Akhtar has to play a challenging role which is one of
his best of his career as an actor. He has played a father, a husband, a friend
and in every role he suits very well. He has enacted very well sometime without
saying a word especially in the scenes with his on screen wife.
Among the others it is Aditi Rao Hydari who has left
impression in her brief role. She looks very pretty and acted very effectively.
In most of her scene she has to enact through her eyes as she has very few
dialogues. With Farhan she has superb chemistry. Manav Kaul is brilliant as the
welfare minister with a secret from his past. He is one underutilized actor of
Bollywood and deserves to be seen in more films.
Neil Nitin Mukesh and John Abraham are there in cameos. Both
are quite okay. Neil is a bit over the top in his villainous act where John has
underplayed his character very well. But it is really a mystery why John agreed
to do this insignificant cameo.
The technical team has done a good. Cinematography by Sanu John Varughese is very
effective and suits the mood of the characters very well. As a thriller it’s
editing done by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abijaat Joshi is very crisp. The action
sequences are fast paced and stylish whether it is the shootouts in the beginning
or the chase sequence between Danish and Wazir, all the action scenes have been
designed wonderfully which provides the much required adrenaline rush.
There are too many songs considering the short running time
but still it works quite well in the story. The songs, “Tere Bin”, “Maula” and
“Atrangi Yaari” is good. Shantanu Moitra has composed very melodious songs.
Overall it is a thriller where the suspense is not that
effective but the emotional connect is very strong. In spite of the loopholes in
the story you won’t feel cheated at the end. Watch it for the superb
performances by the two fantastic actors Mr. Bachchan and Mr. Akhtar.
