A Wednesday - Dynamic

Sometimes you come across a movie that shakes you a lot, and which leaves a promise that there is a space for movie making that is different from the standard cliches, or romances, or manufactured tragedies. 'A Wednesday' is a movie that I got around to watching much after the movie was released, and I was thoroughly impressed. You may not agree with everything that the movie propounds, but you cannot be but impressed by the pace of the movie, by some superb acting from the various stars, by the ability to leave you sympathizing with a person who directs acts of murder, and eventually admiring the director, Neeraj Pandey, who dared to make a movie with no main female lead in a romantic situation, and most of all, a movie without any songs.
The movie certainly was not a rich action sequences laden movie such as 'Singh in King', but given a choice, I would rather watch a movie like 'A Wednesday'. This was a movie that gained extremely from word of mouth, colleagues who had seen the movie gave enthusiastic reviews, and I would do the same if somebody asked me.



Without revealing the end, the twist in the movie as well as the impassioned speech by the bomb maker comes at the end of a gripping movie, and keep you on your seats till the final credits come to an end. The performances by Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Jimmy Shergill and Deepal Shaw are all first rate, and the fact that they are able to make their presence felt in such a short movie (1.5) hours makes the performances even more creditable. The movie also introduces the concept of a backlash by the 'stupid, common man'; all of us who live in a city and go to our work places, and some of whom die in bomb blasts that happen in our cities.
The movie is about the flashback by a retired police commissioner of Bombay, Prakash Rathod [Anupam Kher]. He remembers an incident that happened in the space of 4 hours, on a normal weekday afternoon, the details of the incident not being present on any file or records (only in the memory of those involved). He gets a call from an anonymous caller about bombs kept in the city at different locations, and for defusing which, 4 Muslim terrorists in police custody needed to be rounded up from their separate locations. The caller, Naseeruddin Shah, situated on the top of a building, almost like a picnic, makes the police believe in his story when he discloses the location of a bomb right in the police station next to the police headquarters.
Anupam Kher gets complete authority from the Chief Minister to handle the negotiations, and gets down to business. He is obviously dealing with a person who knows how to conduct himself, defeating attempts to track his details. Eventually, inspite of a crack team and some fast police work, spear headed by a hot headed police officer (Jimmy Shergill in a great role), Anupam Kher is forced to follow all of the directions he is given, till the time that the terrorists are transported to an air field in Juhu. If you have not watched the movie, you should watch it.