This here is a movie that anybody living and producing films in India could have made – but didn’t. A movie that starts out slowly, even incoherently, but like a slowly uncoiling anaconda, bares its fangs late in the day and consumes you with a quick, visceral gulp of a climax. You are left gasping for breath, and the gentle ending that follows the climax is the only soothing balm for your pulsating heart beat. Neeraj Pandey - no Satyajit Ray or Shyam Benegal - the debutante director of the movie is clearly a common man’s director (pun intended, as you will find after watching the movie!), weaving together the lives of ordinary men and women going about life in a sprawling metro, connected by a common thread – the uncertain, tentative fear of the unseen hand of terrorism.

 

I guess it takes some guts to make a movie with two aging, or shall we say well-aged, thespians and no heroine, no item songs, no car chases and no six-pack abs. Anupam Kher, playing Prakash Rathod, the Commissioner of Police, is the protagonist on the right side of law. Or is he? Naseeruddin Shah, playing you-know-not-who, is the counterfoil on the wrong side of the law. Or, again, is he? The delicious ironies in the eternal “battle” of the good and the evil are brought out several times. Is the threat of deadly force in the hands of an encounter specialist, played convincingly by Jimmy Shergill, good or bad? Is the sensationalist TV media’s news-hungry reporter, played not so convincingly by Deepal Shaw, doing the right thing by collaborating with a terrorist? The viewer, if keeping a sharp eye on the screen and a keen ear on the dialogues, will find himself treated to a veritable feast of reason and flow of soul. The action is not loud, yet fast-paced. The dialogues, despite the setting of the police station and the underworld, do not degenerate into foul-mouthed four-letter terms of motherly and sisterly endearment. Like all good movies, the viewer is still left with some open questions, and can mull them over for a good aftertaste, and give in to a sense of fulfillment much later.

 

A Wednesday is a movie that has a few surprises, taut screenplay, masterly acting by the two protagonists, decent acquittal of their roles by all the others in support, and last but not the least, a director who thinks his way through. If you are in the mood for a purely fun ride with songs and dances, comedy sequences or heroic stunt-baji, avoid this movie like the plague of terrorism it seeks to highlight. On the other hand, if your idea of a good cinematic experience is a well-executed idea that connects at a deeper level than a BAH or a SIK, plunk your money down on “A Wednesday”. Any day! 

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