Wazir

There is always a catch when casting Amitabh Bachchan in a film, and the makers of Wazir are snared in that no-win situation. Bachchan brings in an audience with his reputation and image, but the character he plays never stays the character in the script. His larger-than-life aura inevitably overshadows the role, which then expands and bursts at the seams, spilling out in all directions, taking up inordinate space and time and eventually edging out other important roles.

This is exactly what happens in Wazir. Since it is a thriller about terrorism, every single character must play a specified role, particularly the protagonist, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer Daanish Ali (Farhan Akhtar). Unfortunately, the Akhtar character gets short-circuited right at the beginning, when, in a completely idiotic and impulsive decision, he goes after a terrorist with his little daughter in the car. His wife (Aditi Rao Hydari) rightly blames him for the tragedy that follows, and a canny chess instructor, Pandit Omkar Nath Dhar (Bachchan), with an agenda of his own, then uses him as a pawn.

This is metaphorically speaking, of course. In the idiom of chess, Panditji is actually the pawn who uses the knight (Daanish) to knock over the king, the welfare minister in the cabinet, Yazaad Qureshi (Manav Kaul), who is remote controlling terrorists from Kashmir. It is a good story idea for a thriller, but it does not work. Every character in Wazir listens with rapt attention to the wheelchair-bound Panditji, but rarely do they interact with each other. You can actually count the number of words spoken by Daanish to his wife or to his colleagues. Nor is the mind of the villain, Qureshi, examined in any detail. Why he functions with such duplicity in the cabinet is never explained convincingly. Instead, for long periods, Daanish and Panditji sit across each other and play chess. This is a disappointing thriller.

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Ajit Duara