Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Director: Bejoy Nambiar
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Farhaan Akhtar, Aditi Rao Hydari, Naseer Hussain, Manav Kaul & Neil Nitin Mukesh
Music: Shantanu Moitra, Advaita, Ankit Tiwari, Prashant Pillai, Gaurav Godkhindi, Rochak Kohli & Rohit Kulkarni
Director David oops sorry Bejoy Nambiar had displayed his poor directional skills in his last outing too namely David, which had come and disappeared in oblivion as it tanked on the box office turnstiles without a trace and the same seems to be the case of his latest outing Wazir.
The plotted scenario of Wazir gets kick started with a ‘musical introduction’ of the dynamic ATS officer Danish Ali (Farhan Akhtar), his wife Ruhaana (Aditi Rao Hydari) and their only child Noorie. One day, when Danish Ali is out with his family, his razor sharp eyes spot a dreaded terrorist Rameez (Naseer Husain). What follows after that is a series of chase sequences, which results in the sudden death of the innocent Noorie. Completely shattered by the death of his child, a mentally disturbed Danish Ali ends up ‘eliminating’ Rameez, which results in him being suspended from his service. Unable to bear the grief, one day, just as he is about to kill himself, there enters a chess champion named Panditji aka Omkar Nath Dhar (Amitabh Bachchan) in his life. He, then, teaches Danish Ali, the ‘similarities’ between the ‘game of life’ and the ‘game of chess’. Gradually, the 2 become the best of buddies and start spending time over drinks & chess. One fine day, Panditji reveals to Danish Ali that his daughter was murdered by the politician Yazaad Qureshi (Manav Kaul) and that he is waiting to take revenge for the same. Danish Ali then also joins Panditji in his battle against Yazaad Qureshi. As days pass, Danish Ali realizes that Yazaad Qureshi is not just a mere politician, but is more than what meets the eye. Just when Danish Ali plans to eliminate Yazaad Qureshi, Panditji gets ‘attacked’ by a certain mysterious villain named “Wazir” (Neil Nitin Mukesh).
Director Bejoy Nambiar should learn one important directional lesson that just having extremely talented & par excellence gifted actors like Amitabh Bachchan & Farhaan Akhtar is not enough to make a good & perfect film. The overall ingredients like the script, the music and other techinal aspects should also match the actors caliber which goes a long way in the success run rate of the film. So Mr. Beejoy Nambiar should 1st brush up his technically oriented directional skills including taking some fresh lessons in his favorite genre of filmmaking namely The thriller & the suspense genre. And at this juncture apart from the actors a due credit is also due for the technicians like Rohit Kulkarni for his impactful & effective background score & Sanu Varghese for his decent & soothing cinematography.
Performance wise Amitabh Bachchan as Panditiji, as usual delivers an outstandingly par excellence performance as a handicapped person out to seek revenge in a Chess game style using Farhaan Akhtar as a perfect pawn on his revenge oriented Chess Board. And Big B’s hand in glove partner Farhaan Akhtar as Danish Ali is too good to be true and has ended up delivering a flawless performance in lieu with his perfect mannerisms & body language of a tough cop and without the 2 of the most versatile actors of B – Town, Wazir is not even worth a one time watch. The next in line actor is Neil Nitin Mukesh who is a big let down in the chief villainous role mysteriously named “Wazir”. And above all the list of mercilessly wasted actor also includes the hunky beefcake actor John Abraham & the gorgeous actress Aditi Rao Hydari followed by other talented actors like Manav Kaul & Naseer Hussain.
Tail Piece: Frankly speaking Wazir may only appeal to the intelligentsia crowd. But it is certainly not a common man’s cup of refreshing tea.
