Tag Archives: Daanish Ali

Wazir (2016)

Wazir review

written by Souranath Banerjee

A superb concept made into an average film.

My Ratings: 3.3/5.

The basic script of Wazir was written as early as in 1994 and later around 2004, the film was supposed to be producer/director Vidhu Vinod Chopra‘s first Hollywood venture, with Dustin Hoffman in the lead!

But then it had to wait for another 12 years to be finally made by director Bejoy Nambiar and released as a Bollywood thriller last Friday. 

The film Wazir has no doubt an innovative concept.

If you have played chess you must be knowing that Wazir (meaning Wazir-poster1the ‘minister’) is the most powerful piece on a chess board and using this as a metaphor the film title has been conceptualized. Actually there are several references of chess being repeatedly associated with the film’s story line.

And then, watching two of the most talented actors of our industry sharing screen space, Amitabh Bachchan (as the old crippled vengeful Pandit Omkarnath Dhar) and Farhan Akhtar (as the traumatized officer of law Daanish Ali) brilliantly complementing each other with their effortless performances is indeed a treat for the audience.

Graceful Aditi Rao Hydari doing the needful while Manav Kaul as always giving his best, and then not to forget the not so demanding cameos by John Abraham and Neil Nitin Mukesh – though overall everyone did hold on to their ends pretty well. 

But unfortunately a cool concept and great star cast doesn’t seem Wazir-poster3to be enough to create a cinema of superlative order.

The story has too many illogicalities that are difficult to ignore, too many convenient routes taken by the script writers (in total nine writing credits including the dialogue writers!), and on top of that the ending becomes predictable after a certain point of time.

May be a bit of more pace/thrill and a tinge of less emotional drama and background songs could have worked better.

Overall a decent first half that drags into a wobbly second half and then an unsurprising ending!

In spite of creditable camera work by Sanu Varghese and appropriate editing by Vidhu Vinod Chopra himself, the film simply doesn’t satisfy you to the fullest.

Hope 2016 brings many more quality films that will eventually quench our thirst for better cinema.

Poster courtesy: www.bollywoodmdb.com