A Wednesday! (2008)

Director: Neeraj Pandey
Story: Neeraj Pandey
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher 
Music: Sanjoy Chowdhary
Time: 103 minutes
Bottom-line: A fine thriller; sublime performances from the leads

  A film that you can watch on any day of the week, and at any time, A Wednesday just shows you how much power a single man has in his hands. Starring Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher in the leads, the story takes place within 2pm and 6pm on a Wednesday in Mumbai. With a fast paced story and a surprise twist ending, this film provides plenty of thrills and also gives a social message to Indian people.

Naseeruddin Shah as the unnamed caller

Mumbai Police commissioner Prakash Rathod (Kher), on the day before retirement, recalls his most challenging case. One Wednesday, an ordinary unnamed man (Shah) places a couple of black bags, supposedly containing explosives, in several places in Mumbai. He then goes to the top of a building, under construction, and sets up his gadgets: a phone, several SIM cards, a laptop etc. He calls Rathod, and informs him that he has planted five bombs in Mumbai, that will go off simultaneously in another four hours, unless Rathod agrees to his demands: to release four terrorists. Rathod thinks the caller is bluffing, but starts to fear when the caller informs him that a bomb has been planted in the station itself. Rathod has four hours to either agree to the caller’s demands or to find all the five bombs and disarm them. Does the caller bring the Mumbai police to its knees, or does Rathod sniffle out the caller before the time is up? Watch A Wednesday to find out!

Anupam Kher as Rathod (left), with Aamir Bashir
as Jai, another cop 

The story is clean from the start. The fact that the story is told in a first-person narrative is pretty good thinking, and the significance of this is known only at the end. Other than a few violent (and sort of offbeat) scenes in the beginning, the film has no gunfights, no action, but only psychological thrills. When you see Shah take out all his gadgets and stuff you feel that he is a pretty cool villain, unlike the ones we see in Tamil films, with tons of hitmen and stuff. After this build-up for Shah, the film goes very smoothly and at a rapid pace. In the first half it may seem like this is just another race against time movie, but what makes it unique in the events that take place towards the end.

Jimmy Shergill as Arif, another important character

The suspense is built very well. On one side you have Shah, a guy who is sitting in the open with just a bunch of gadgets, bringing the police to its knees. On the other hand you have Rathod, a man with enormous power and resources, but who is helpless against a common man. Throughout the film, Rathod uses all the facilities available to him: computer hackers, call traces etc. but still cannot find the caller. All the phone calls between the caller and Rathod create psychological suspense. But the adrenaline really starts to flow in the last fifteen minutes.

(The paragraph may contain spoilers) The three tracks - that of Shah calling, that of the terrorists being taken in the bus, and that of the reporter – are interspersed. This helps to build the suspense. The final call which the man makes to Rathod brings out the true nature of the characters, and also provides a message to the public (to tell the message would be a big spoiler). The call also changes the attitude of all the other people in the police station. That monologue by Shah is one of the best scenes in the film. The twists that take place towards the end in the airport are simply brilliant: you will really be hit with a shock when you see them! The final dialogue by Kher is also good. I like the way Pandey ends the film without any name for the character of Shah. To the viewers, he is just a stupid common man, as he calls himself. But the fact that the caller remains known as a common man adds to the meaning of the message he gives, of how common people should deal with matters the authorities don’t.

The acting by both the leads is excellent. Shah plays a cool character that is prepared for everything. Till the end he acts in such a way that you will think he is an awesome villain: so cool, yet so powerful. That monologue of his is superb, and his expressions during that scene are splendid. Anupam Kher has also acted equally well. He displays the boldness and authoritative attitude of a cop, but also displays fear as the story progresses.

Poster for Unnaipol Oruvan

The film was remade in three languages. In Tamil it was Unnaipol Oruvan (meaning ‘someone like you’), starring Kamal Haasan for Shah’s role and Mohanlal for Kher’s role. In Telugu it was Eeenadu, with Kamal Haasan and Victory Venkatesh playing the leads. In English it was The Common Man, with Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross playing the leads. I think this is one of the few Indian movies that were made in English. The Tamil version was a scene-by-scene copy of A Wednesday, with the same twists and same story all the way. Both Kamal and Mohanlal have acted well in the Tamil remake.

To conclude, Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday is one of the few thrillers in Hindi that I like, along with Kaun. A smooth story from the beginning with no diversions, a mind-blowing twist ending, accompanied by sublime performances by both Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher make this film a fabulous entertainer: no fights and no action, but a classy psychological thriller.

My Rating: 4.5/5