A Wednesday: Forced Resilience or Apathy
We are resilient by force, says Naseeruddin Shah in the recently released ‘A Wednesday’. I had often read and heard Mumbai being congratulated for its resilience and wondered what this quality of ‘resilience’ is? I live in Delhi and had no way to observe the phenomenon first hand. Things changed two years back. A couple of days before Diwali there were blasts in Sarojini Nagar and Paharganj. The popular market in Sarojini Nagar saw entire families being wiped out, in some cases the blast left behind a young girl or a crippled father. Photographs of grieving relatives and charred bodies of children were enough to drive one crazy. However, I noticed that from the next day our markets were far from deserted, there were people all around, many of them excited about the ‘sale’ signs on shops. The newspapers and TV channels announced with pride that Delhi was no less resilient than Mumbai. Diwali was celebrated with the usual lights and noises. And I was never again comfortable with the idea of resilience. My discomfort turned to seething anger as I witnessed the Mumbai train blasts and its aftermath while on a vacation in Mumbai. The film, A Wednesday well captures this topical subject of the common man caught in the terrorism crosshair, albeit with populist and simplistic approach.
I saw ‘A Wednesday’ on the very day that the recent Delhi blasts happened. The situation in the film is familiar – a man holding a city to ransom to get some terrorists out of jail. The situation is truly desperate – the police loses if it sets the terrorists free and it loses if it doesn’t, unless they find and diffuse all the hidden bombs which would be well nigh impossible. The cops first concentrate their energies on finding this one ‘terrorist’ who has set this up, although how that would stop the bombs from going off is not clear. When that fails, the police gears up to fulfill his terrible demand of releasing four locked up terrorists. The film ends with a twist which I won’t give away, but it involves a fifteen-minute tirade against the system for lettings the common people die by the Naseeruddin Shah character (he doesn’t have a name in the film).
What Shah says in his angst-filled speech does ring true. The common people are easier targets of terrorism as against the politicians with Z grade securities. Public places and transport are prime targets. Public depends on the police for security but is consistently disappointed. And when this public wants justice brought to people responsible for the carnage it is again disappointed by delays, lack of evidence, etc. The film seems to argue that this fate of the aam aadmi may never change until one day one of them gets up and says enough is enough. So the film sets up a high tech drama that not only doles out justice to the guilty but also opens the eyes of old fashioned policewallahs, opportunistic journalists and generation Y techies.
The film is supposed to be a wake-up call to the system. The common man is not weak and this is what he can do. He can bring justice, act fast and execute terrorists he is convinced of the horrible acts even if they are yet to be convicted by the judiciary. This is a simplistic even fantastical approach to a grave problem. For how is this supposed to be an eye-opener for the so-called system? How does it enlighten a(n unemotional) system that works only to support its own survival? Is it supposed to work as a threat to the state institutions – we will kill the terrorists if you don’t OR a threat to the terrorists – if you don’t stop the killing of innocent people we will kill more of you? Also, does it not negate the route that a fair and just society should take or for that matter provide the larger correction to the national and international atmosphere that breeds terrorism?
As I said because of its topical appeal this fantasy-come-true, simplistic and agenda-filled film nonetheless tugs at your heart and gets the nod, if for the moment. I would have less of these reservations if the ‘common man’ taking on the system and the terrorists was killed in the end, as that then would have been a fitting end to a fantasy.
To sustain this Bollywood-style justice comes some well-written drama, fine editing and crisp story-telling. Despite a low-budget feel, the director, Neeraj Pandey has done his bit to give us a pan-city feel and a sense on the enormity of the issues. An ensemble of actors drives the story in a fast paced manner and with economy. Naseeruddin Shah is good at playing ‘the common man’ and seems to have jumped out of one of the RK Laxman cartoon pages. Anupam Kher and Jimmy Shergil play cops and they seem to be in form for once.
As far as our ‘resilience’ factor goes, I want to agree even to the film’s epithet that we are ‘resilient by force’, marta kya na karta. Because the alternative is worse – that all that there is, is plain APATHY!
- Padmaja Thakore
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hi Padmaja,
welcome back after a long long silence:)
enjoyed the review.And agree with the spirit business.After the train blasts, some people in media did question the whole ’spirit’ thing and I was happy that at least some questioning is happening.
“The film ends with a twist which I won’t give away …”
Sorry Padmaja, you pretty much gave away the ‘twist’ with the rest of your post.
Hope it doesn’t spoil the movie for people who haven’t watched it yet.
The only problem with A Wednesday ( and films like RDB ) was that the common man takes in hand the law and is shown smarter than the police/judicial-system. Rest of the sentiments, from his point of view, are ok.
In fact if Paresh Rawal (Nishikant Kamat) makes a bhaashan (MMJ) and it in turn tries to change the views of a young policeman, for me it is a bigger victory of human soul and cinema.
Padmaja, your really spot on man. I mean i’m a residant of Pune. The abysmal traffic and road conditions coupled with the pathetic power situation in the city has led me to really feel that i, as a common man am really being taken for a ride.
At times, while returning home exausted after a long days work and being caught in a traffic jam or forced to drive at a snails pace due the roads being jam packed with vehicals, my blood ends up reaching its boiling point. At such times, i get a strong urge to butcher all the people responsible for all this mess. How i’d love to be in the position of Naseeruddin Shah’s in chatacter in Wednesday at such times!!
I started writing after watching “A Wednesday”. It was too short to post on pfc. Actually, just 3 words “Just watch it!!!!”.
you pretty much gave away the “twist” , infact your whole review is about that twist !! .
hope everyone who wanted to see the film has seen it by now . if after reading this review someone sees the movie it will be like eating stale panipuri !! LOL
Padmaja,
I think ‘resilience’ and all that is too melodramatic, soppy and 2-penny as an answer to terrorism. And most of it is fctually incorrect anyways, all bluster. Sarojini WAS deserted after the 13th Sep blasts, and more so after yesterday (27th Sep). Today’s Times of India, Delhi edition reports GK, Sarojini Nagar, CP, Karol Bagh as blatantly thin of people. So resilience, for what it’s worth, is not working at all.
A Wednesday’s solution, although dramatic for cinematic purposes, is in the right direction. It shows intent, an ‘active’ response to terrorism. And that is why it has found favours with the audience. And, I hope, it symbolises that somewhere the common people are getting increasingly wary and bored of mere resilience and tosh.
nice review of an awesome movie…anyway wednesday is not about the thrill,its about the message we get in it…it has inspired me like anything