Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Wazir is being discussed in film-watching audiences. The film has a straight to the point narrative unlike the formulaic combinations and digs deep down your psyche after the watch.
An old man on the wheelchair befriending a young police officer, who has lost his daughter in a reckless chase. There are so many aspects that need applause. The performances are neat and effective. The plot points (though sometimes predictable) charted out within the films diegesis. The metaphorical landscape of chess superimposed with life or vice versa. The aspect of subjective interpretation and active participation of the spectator. You definitely don’t want to miss a sequence in between. Above all, an effective use of space and time with no unrequired embellishments: visible or invisible!
But the film has its low points too. The plot goes weak at certain key points. The dialogues do get preachy. The end is just not knitted well. Also, Bollywood standard obsession or belief that only Amitabh Bachchan can deliver such roles (like also the one in Piku) always seems very ambiguous to me. Throughout Piku, I kept wishing I could see Utpal Dutt in the role of Bhasker.
It is a completely subjective view. Therefore I wonder, do they cast him because that’s what drives the finance to an alternate script and plot like this. Or does he want to engage in this cinema after having been at the helm of the most illogical of narratives. A common person like me would never know! Alas…
Wazir is fresh, innovative and decently implemented. It definitely is not a Friday film but a Monday film as Big B had once mentioned in an interview. A Monday film is the one which has meat. Vidhu Vinod Chopra has to be credited to always add something new to this fanfare called Bollywood. Each of his products distinctly reflect his sense of cinema as a medium of influence and a medium of change.
