Plot Checkmate : Review of Wazir

"Khel khel mein, khel khel ke, khel khel ye aa jaega"

Amitabh Bachchan has reached a long distance in his career and experimented with a plethora of roles. He’s played drunkards, patriarchs, gangsters, American gangsters, progeriacs, and Dhanush's voice. So character-wise, there isn’t actually much ground left to cover. So what should be done about it? Then someone went, “I know! Let’s make him a drunken amputee! Who plays Shatranj!! That should do the trick.”

At the first look, Wazir seems like an ambitious project; with Vidhu Vinod Chopra producing and co-writing it with Abhijat Joshi, and Bejoy Nambiar at the helm of affairs, with Farhan Akhtar and Big B in the lead. It starts of as one too. Danish Ali (Akhtar) is a cop who has lost his daughter at the hands of a terrorist and wishes to have revenge upon the organisation responsible. Omkar Nath Dhar a.k.a. Panditji (Big B) shares a similar loss, albeit apparently at the hands of a high ranking politico. A friendship sparks off between the two, which is tested when Panditji life is endangered by an unknown mastermind who calls himself Wazir (Neil Nitin Mukesh).

Going by the above statements, half the people would laugh their guts out at the very mention of Neil’s name. But make no mistake, in the small span of screen time that Neil had, there was actually some commendable output provided by him, with some crisp, evil, dialogue delivery, and a slightly putting-on edge maniac-ish persona. And I know I take a risk when I say this... but I was actually disappointed at the fact that he was not in the movie more (THERE! I said it!!).

Talking disappointments, let’s talk about the plot.

On second thought, let’s just not. Wafer-thin, and not as thrilling as the trailers made it out to be, half the people will have guessed the twist way before it even happens. The filmmakers are not completely at fault there. As audiences, we have become so used to twist-endings and suspenses, that now, we start getting all Sherlock-y the minute a movie starts. BUT, then again, at least one (read: the filmmakers) can cover up the holes on their end, holes being the numerous points where the story of Wazir had been leaking about and passing key points of information that were supposed to be kept locked till the opportune moment. Even the climax though not completely flaccid, fused out way earlier and way sleepier than the audience could realise.

Nonetheless, one really cannot criticise this film on the acting front. Farhan is supposed to look like a tough, impulsive cop, and he fits the bill. Big B is supposed to look like a man on a wheelchair, and Voila! Special praise is due to Manav Kaul who plays a political figure with a mysterious background, and a creepy daughter (Come to think of it, there are a LOT of daughters in this film). John Abraham makes a cameo as a govt. agent, borrowing much from his reel self in Madras Cafe. Even his presence was cut down abruptly (I know it’s a cameo, but seriously?)

 

VERDICT – 2 ½ out of 5 stars.

(Coincidence! Throughout the film Amitabh ranted about the 2 & a 1/2 moves of the ghoda (knight)). 

The game of Chess, or shatranj (the urdu name stressed upon throughout the film) has close to 69 trillion possible moves in one single game. So one could reasonably assume that if a good player should not do something, it is to inadvertently reveal his gameplan mid-play. Wazir fails to work upon that basic prerequisite, and thus falls short of being the suspense thriller it was expected to be. And believe me, there were expectations.