A Wednesday
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir and others
Director: Neeraj Pandey
It is a typically normal day at the cop station, people are registering routine complaints and the routine work is on. Out of the blue, the Mumbai police commissioner gets a call about bombs placed in various locations, which would go off unless some demands of the caller are met. You know what it is: yet another film about terrorism, but when the twist comes, it is most unexpected and pleasantly shocking.
Neeraj Pandey makes his directorial debut with 'Wednesday' and gives film a totally different 'feeling'. The commissioner Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher) is tense, no-nonsense, competent and humourless - like the film itself! Making fun of the police force has become the order of the day but 'Wednesday' gives these hard-working, committed men (represented in this film by Aamir Bashir and Jimmy Shergill) the respect they truly deserve, forgiving a few black sheep. Seeing them at work in this film makes the much harried Mumbaikar breathe in a more relaxed manner.
Pandey's film speaks for the common citizen of Mumbai, and indeed the country, who does not know where from the next terrorist attack would come. A superhero is needed to fight this constant threat, and he need not be one with stylish suits, but could even be a bespectacled guy with computers and knows a thing or two about explosives as well as the 'enemy' does.
If one is to see a film about terrorism, then it may as well be one like this film, which does not treat the ordinary citizen as a sniveling pawn and makes the audience feel good at the end - without songs, romance or any obvious crowd-pleasing elements.
And finally, it is the actors who carry the film through - a dignified, simple Anupam Kher who always manage to excel in his roles, Naseeruddin Shah who is always capable of more than what is expected of him; even supporting actors like Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw (as a TV reporter caught on the chessboard) the unknowns playing the teenage hacker, the informer, the cop tracing the calls, all do their parts with brisk efficiency.
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir and others
Director: Neeraj Pandey
It is a typically normal day at the cop station, people are registering routine complaints and the routine work is on. Out of the blue, the Mumbai police commissioner gets a call about bombs placed in various locations, which would go off unless some demands of the caller are met. You know what it is: yet another film about terrorism, but when the twist comes, it is most unexpected and pleasantly shocking.
Neeraj Pandey makes his directorial debut with 'Wednesday' and gives film a totally different 'feeling'. The commissioner Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher) is tense, no-nonsense, competent and humourless - like the film itself! Making fun of the police force has become the order of the day but 'Wednesday' gives these hard-working, committed men (represented in this film by Aamir Bashir and Jimmy Shergill) the respect they truly deserve, forgiving a few black sheep. Seeing them at work in this film makes the much harried Mumbaikar breathe in a more relaxed manner.
Pandey's film speaks for the common citizen of Mumbai, and indeed the country, who does not know where from the next terrorist attack would come. A superhero is needed to fight this constant threat, and he need not be one with stylish suits, but could even be a bespectacled guy with computers and knows a thing or two about explosives as well as the 'enemy' does.
If one is to see a film about terrorism, then it may as well be one like this film, which does not treat the ordinary citizen as a sniveling pawn and makes the audience feel good at the end - without songs, romance or any obvious crowd-pleasing elements.
And finally, it is the actors who carry the film through - a dignified, simple Anupam Kher who always manage to excel in his roles, Naseeruddin Shah who is always capable of more than what is expected of him; even supporting actors like Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw (as a TV reporter caught on the chessboard) the unknowns playing the teenage hacker, the informer, the cop tracing the calls, all do their parts with brisk efficiency.
