Neeraj Pandey Wanted : Dead or Alive!!!
since two exclamation marks (!!) are the new signs of being cool and passionate, i thought i will add a extra one here to be more wannabe supercool.
so who is this Neeraj Pandey ? And why is invisible like the anonymous caller in his debut feature A Wednesday. And how is that possible in this era of media blitzkreig, no pic, not on any channel ? where is he hiding ? or is he already busy signing multi film deals ? Because A Wednesday is one of the best debuts of this year and a must watch! Since few weeks back, i was struggling to count even five good films this year. That makes “a wednesday” more important.
what is there in it ? A good concept and two great performnces ? thats it, a friend asked. Yes, the film is about that only and it keeps you engaged for 100mins. If thats not a big achievement, i dont know then what is.
The director has taken few liberties but am ready to overlook it as long as its keeping me engaged, dont have time to think about other stuff. The treatment of the film is completely bollywoodised…zoop,zap,jhatak….same with the background music…dhoom,dhaam,dhadaap. If only Neeraj could cut out all these and played it all subtle. To copy from Subrat’s notes (trust management guys to put ranting also in points), here are few points…..
1. A gut ‘literally’ pissing in his pants when he sees the tough cop Jimmy Shergill. It was a moment from a Mehul Kumar film. I like Mehul Kumar and I think Marte Dam Tak is a classic but it didn’t sit well here
2. Some of the lines Anupam Kher had seemed so contrived - “Sub Inspector Jai Singh, Tumhari shaadi ho chuki hai, Bachche Hain, Bachche se pyaar karte ho” in that snappy style all for some effect which completely eluded me. So was that other line where he asks “aaj kiska munh dekha tha subah uthne ke baad” and Jimmy and Aamir respond “Khud Ka” in unison. There were many more - snappy “Yes, Sirs” which stuck out like a sore thumbs, Jimmy and Anupam conversations et al.
3. Deepal Shaw
4. I am surprised if your ears weren’t assaulted by the b/g score.
5. Jimmy Shergill beating a police constable to pulp belonged to Bhandarkar school of filmmaking.
And also the way tv news reporting was shown in the film. But then, so far not a single film has got it right.
About the twist in the film. I knew about it all along. A friend even confirmed it a month before its release. Occupational hazard, cant help it. But even after knowing all the possible twists, it kept me hooked.
And when was the last time we saw two old actors (ofcourse they cant be heroes in hindi films anymore) in leads and doing it so well. A friend is struggling to convince many producers that his hero is 55+ and still can be commercial. As expected, every producer thinks its impossible. Hopefully the success of the film will make his life bit easier. So am hoping for it and am sure about it. Watched it last night at fun republic, 11:00 pm show. There were some 50-60 people in the theatre. When it got over, people clapped with smirk on their face. As the guy sitting next to me said….Smart ass!! We need more films like wednesday to get over the confusion of kya yeh pyaar hai ya dosti ? To stop thinking……whats that ? Its a fucking good film that has few loopholes but manages to deliver the right punch at the right places!!! And its so tight that you would not get much time to wonder if its right or wrong, what can or cant happen.
Just go, go and watch it! Wednesday works on any day! If for nothing else, then just for good old Naseer!!! And more power to producers like Anjum Rizvi!!!
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aahh to each his own i guess, this is one way of looking at it but then again the other way is , the director got the chance to make his first film, maybe he should have been a bit more prepared, taken care of the crappy music,got rid of saas bahu serial style cinematography, worked a bit more on the research, the sim concept was never explained properly.
A new comer gets one chance to make a film, he has to earn that chance, the producers trust. am sure neeraj worked really hard to get this made, to get the backing but unfortunately he almost blew it, he should be grateful to both naseer saab and anupam kher for saving his ass, they are the one’s who deserve every bit of credit for the film. no one else.
hahaha rick…hav some mercy…he also wrote it n its all about the concept. its not easy to construct n built it that way he has done it. so neeraj is not that vella. and anupam was so impressed with him, he asked neeraj to write the next film for his production. aise do chaar words me hi logon ka khoon mat kar do !
well who said it was supposed to be easy? this kind of a story was hell of a difficult thing to pull off….
if he thought he could only do a sub par job with it he should have told himself ” yaar yeh story likhna apne baas ka baat nahi” and moved to something else he was more capable off.
am not denying his effort, just saying he should have done it better.
read n re-read ur comment, u just killed him rick! ab sanjeevani ka address, i dont know….moved to something else…….waah waah!!
The film had me riveted right from the first scene. It unraveled wonderfully and never for a moment did I feel any lull. I am not from a movie making background but as a viewer I have rarely seen better work. It hence comes as a surprise when you folk, especially R rick, berates the movie. Makes me even suspect he has some personal score to settle. He even got the number of terrorists wrong (4 not 5), has he even watched the movie??.
I didn’t register the “sore” background score it must have weaved well into the scenes. I even thought Deepal Shaw was perfectly cast she has a bit of that in-your-face oomph.
I found Wednesday to be far far better than black friday, which i thought meandered in the second half and tried my patience. I though in many parts the movie (Black Friday) had just picked whole paragraphs from the book for screenplay. But woe to he that says one bad thing about Black Friday on this site.
Interesting review. Thanks.
Here’s what I have to say about this movie,..
http://www.gauravs.com/movie-review/a-wednesday
You are right Phoenixhu and Ram…as a die-hard cinema lover (not a critic but one who goes 2 fulfill the human need movies cater to) like millions of others, am proud of guys like neeraj….and sriram, nimit, rakeysh, raj kumar, john…to name a few….who make such original hard-hitting stuff which reinforces our belief that indian cinema is in no way behind hollywood….we ought to encourage them and not pull them down…and not to forget, even the most hard-nosed critics like Rajeev Masand had good things to say about this one…
Would like to share a story (crtsy SK) about all those who criticise an effort like ‘A Wednesday’ just for the heck of it…when the inventors of steam boat took it to the river for the first ever trial, skeptics who had gathered there said ‘it won’t start’…..when it started moving, they went ‘it won’t stop’!!!!…..moral: some people will criticize, NO MATTER WHAT…
Phoenixnu, I know of cops who were basically killers, in fact one of them I knew was known as ‘Encounter Guru’ and he was employed mostly in special task forces. Jimmy is supposed to be in the same mold from what I understood. And I, living some of my life in police quarters , have seen unfortunate ‘thieves’ being beaten mercilessly and pissing due to the fear.
Its filmy , but its not so out of place is all what I am saying.
While watching the first half of the movie I was just thinking that there must be something good coming up, that is going to save this movie. And the script in the second half stood up to that expectation. The monologue in the climax of the movie makes a good impact. Had I been a survivor who got saved from being one of the victims because of missing the train, I would have penned down a similar sort of agitated emotion. Rest of the conversations are ordinary and the way Mumbai has been screened in the movie is quite cliché. However, summing up on the account of the impact of this movie made, I would say that Neeraj gets the credit for his debut movie. The debutant efforts of filmmakers like Raj Kumar Gupta, Neeraj Pandey and others have raised our expectations for the time coming.
Hear! Hear! People clapped even in the show that I watched. Me and Phoenixnu have a common criteria for liking a film - it should keep us engaged throughout - that’s all, and Wednesday succeeds in doing that. The flaws PNU’s mentioned do exist, no doubt, but they’re forgivable. People should stop dragging down Neeraj Pandey and instead say good work and do even better next time.
Dulhan wahi jo piya man bhaye,
Film wahi jo audience man bhaye,
(and its said jodiyan are made up in heaven
or jodiyan sanjog se miltee hain).
[Disclaimer: Within a context]
this was a very disturbing film. i agree, it was very well made and pretty gripping until the end. but the message is troubling.
the citizen masquerades as a terrorist in order to kill terrorists. he has to do this because the state is inept. why is the state inept — because it has to follow the law and due process.
now the citizen taking the law into his own hands is nothing new in Hindi cinema but usually in such cases — like Bachchan movies of the 1970s or the female avenger films — such vigilante action is dictated by a corrupt state. but here the state is not shown to be corrupt — rather the rule of law is questioned on the grounds that if the rule of law is followed, we cannot punish terrorists. thus rathod has to get permission from the CM that his actions will not be questioned. we see the police mercilessly beating people in order to get them to talk. the naseer character takes this one step further by justifying his actions on the grounds that he - as an individual can ignore the rule of law.
wow. that is very disturbing message!!!
“aaj main tareeke ke baare mein nahi nateeje ke baare mein soch raha hoon”
this is wat Naseer sir says in the movie…just focus on this dialogue,in a different light for the moment…I dont think the message is just about going on killing the terrorists(as rdb didnt ask one to go hunting politicians)…the important messgae is that even a common man can mae a difference…
i wil share a personal experience,maybe u will get a greater feel of things then…after watching this movie,two of my friends got inspired and they decided to try for ips(and that when we have a certain placement in our college and a complete job security)..they didnt think about taking laws in their hand….they thought about the need of the hour and their potential abilities to improve the present situation….thats for all of us to realise