Wazir

By the time the movie reached its second half, I sort of felt a disappointment as things looked too easy and guessable. But to my surprise, in the last five minutes Wazir creates a climax that justifies the chess factor and the sort of intentional predictability in the writing. Narrated with his signature roughness, Wazir directed by Bejoy Nambiar based on Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s story is engaging for its minimal runtime.

Danish Ali is a police officer in the ATS who had to face a personal set back due to his job which ultimately shattered his family life. The depressed and disappointed officer finds a friend in Pandit Omkar Nath, who is a chess player. The similarity in their grief attaches them and the film is basically about the revenge they had in mind and how it gets executed.

A vague similarity with Aamir Khan starrer Talaash is there as you can sense similar character conflicts in this film too. But unlike the ghost oriented Talaash, Wazir is more on revenge and smartness. You might want to argue that the film isn’t that absorbing after a particular area. Well, when looking at the climax the movie has, I have to say that making things look ordinary is somewhat acceptable. Yes! I do agree to the fact that it could have been more gripping, and the only major drawback of the film is that; the lack of intrigue. Except for that factor, the story is well chopped and baked to be an engaging movie with 104 minutes duration.

On screen, Farhan Akhtar is on that average zone of acting. The heavy emotions looked a bit difficult for him to pull off. Amitabh Bachchan delivers a really good performance and the character of Panditji mainly utilizes his charm in dialog delivery. Manav Kaul as the antagonist was impressive. Neil Nithin Mukesh was fine in his brief role. Adithi Rao Hydari also played her part nicely.

If it was treated in the most commercial way, I think thinks would have looked even duller. Bejoy Nambiar in his typical style filled with rawness, slow motions and musical elements creates a good ambience for the story. Poor execution of certain scenes would have made it look indigestible, but the director has succeeded in making things look clean and tidy in terms of execution. The intrigue factor could have been increased in the second half and the movie looks a bit tedious in that portion as we could easily guess the real character of antagonist. BTW I liked the way they incorporated Chess in to it. Edits were nice and the music was in sync with the narration.

Wazir is a calm thriller where you sort of rewind the whole story and find that joy by knowing that there aren’t many faults. A charming Bachchan, realistic narration and an impressive twist has made the film a decent thriller.