Movie Review: Wazir – Only Style, No Substance!

2015 came to an end on a happy note with both Bajirao Mastani and Dilwale doing well at the Box Office. However, 2016 has just begun with its first release – Wazir, directed by Bejoy ‘Shaitan’ Nambiar. Let us find out if Wazir will break the January jinx this year at the BO.

The movie starts off with a song introduction of ATS officer Danish Ali (Farhan Akhtar), his wife Ruhaana (Aditi Rao Hydari) and their only daughter Noorie. One day, when Danish is out with his family, he spots a dreaded terrorist Rameez (Naseer Husain) and within minutes there is a series of chase sequences resulting in the death of Danish’s daughter Noorie.  Both Danish and Ruhaana are completely shattered by the death of their child and are suffering in their own solitary ways. A mentally disturbed Danish gets suspended from his job after he kills Rameez. Unable to bear the grief, one day, when Danish is about to kill himself, enters a wheelchair-bound chess champion named Panditji aka Omkar Nath Dhar (Amitabh Bachchan) in his life, and he gets sucked into the latter’s world, which is full of light and darkness, the contradictions arising from a painful past loss, and a present trying to come to terms with it.  Panditji, teaches Danish the ‘similarities’ between the ‘game of life’ and the ‘game of chess’. Gradually, the two become the best of buddies and start spending time over chess and drinks.

One fine day, Panditji reveals to Danish that his daughter was murdered by a politician Yazaad Qureshi (Manav Kaul) and he is waiting to take revenge for the same. Danish joins Panditji in his battle against Yazaad Qureshi. As days pass, Danish realizes that Yazaad Qureshi is not just a mere politician, but is more than what meets the eye. Just when Danish plans to eliminate Yazaad Qureshi, Panditji gets ‘attacked’ by a certain mysterious villain named ‘Wazir’ (Neil Nitin Mukesh). What happens towards the end is something that turns Danish Ali’s world upside down. Who is the real ‘Wazir’, what happens to Panditji in the end, does Danish Ali become successful in eliminating Yazaad Qureshi is what forms the rest of the film.

Bejoy Nambiar on paper had a great subject written by Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra but he spoils the same with his aimless and poor direction. The movie is high on style but very low on substance. The movie starts off with a ‘bang’ but loses steam as it progresses with too many dull moments included.  The movie suffers from as I said earlier an aimless direction, the plot is unconvincing and the director has taken unlimited cinematic liberties which does not make sense leaving the viewers confused. Akhtar’s character is shown to be a suspended ATS officer but he still carries a fully loaded gun (how and why? Doesn’t the department take back all the arms and ammunition along with the badge from a suspended police personnel?). Also he is called for action as and when required (brain goes spinning – is he a special case? If that is the case then why suspend him?)

The best part of the movie is to watch Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar perform. They have lived the characters and have done justice to their roles. Aditi Rao Hyderi has a small role but she has given a decent performance. Neil Nitin Mukesh and John Abraham are wasted.

The movie has a buffet spread of music directors Shantanu Moitra, Advaita, Ankit Tiwari, Prashant Pillai, Gaurav Godkhindi, Rochak Kohli etc. however, only song ‘Tere Bin’ is hummable. The background music by Rohit Kulkarni is quite powerful. Cinematography by Sanu Varghese is good. The film editors lacked style and substance, they could have edited some of the dull moments and made the movie more crisp and faster. The climax is very bad, it is quite predictable and that pulls the entire movie down.

On the whole, despite some wonderful performances fails to impress.

My Verdict: **