Some Comments on 'A Wednesday'
Ajit has written a short but 'to the point' review of this film. It is certainly a well made and 'tightly knit' film with no lose ends, and the pace keeps us expectant and bound to our seats right till the end. Naseeruddin and Kher also are rather realistic in their performances, and Naseeruddin's common man is probably a new addition to the variety of 'types' in the Indian cinema. The film brings out strongly the reaction of common people to the rather unbridled and tragically painful acts of violence and terrorism in India. The main protagonist in the story is able to use his rather 'fearsome skills' and over-reaching imagination, very unexpected for the 'actual common man', or let us say for the prototype of the common man to keep the entire police force on tenterhooks. Naseeruddin's 'common man', in the film hits back at three selected 'bad guys', that is terrorist, who although cooling their heels in jail are, as happens in our complex judicial system, able to keep the police frustrated and unable to drive home charges against them.
But in spite of his simple exterior the common man in A Wednesday turns out to be another barely camouflaged and rather hackneyed Amitabh Bachan in disguise, who single handedly and rather successfully, takes up the unfulfilled challenge facing the top brass of the Mumbai police force. In the process, the police department and the chief minister turn out to be the 'usual' inefficient but well meaning nincompoops, picking up the dropped clues, at the heels of our 'always-one-step-ahead' super-common man.
From their responses, this film seemed to have acted as a balm to many in the educated and professional sections, who understandably want to express their ire at the mindless violence disrupting our social and national fabric and the helplessness of our security agencies to put a stop to it. However, under its 'well stitched and fitting dress' A Wednesday turns out to be another formula film, which in spite of depicting a rather secularised police force, is not able to keep away from the vitiating practice of identifying 'a single community' as the villain in this sordid scenario.
gyanprakash has insightfully approached tailored elements of 'a wednesday'. and has unraveled the narrative strategies catering to 'types' and 'prototypes' satifying reactionary violent urges of the our great indian middle claas. and this class seems to have become tired of understanding terrorism in the current age of entertainment . and therefore it attempts to make one feel that 'legitimate' violence can get over phenomenon of terrorism. thus it subtly dismisses the political procees and exalts executive functionary en-forcing 'law'. when i say narrative strategy i mean film intends to make you feel that as if protogonist naseer is a terrorist who as a matter of fact is innocent but his conscience forces him to engage in terroristic scheming as he has become sceptical of both judiciary and legislative appratus .
ReplyDelete. limited and banal type of understanding can also bring about terroristic implications. this film's framework too is terroristic
as it does not approach towards understanding it and rather falsely paints it .
people have liked it because their sense of physical in-security propel them to believe in this sort of 'final solution'. so their passivity get an opportunity to be transformed into messianic activity as their counter-part terrorists . so film seduces and tries to mesmerize you to dis-engage with reality . it exploits its form to numb your understanding and entertains you to evoke pleasure.
if you see this film as a pure fictional film , than it is worth watching for naseers splendid performance. but if you feel compelled to relate to reality then you should see it for its inkling for distorting and manipulating reality for certain strategic goals of selecting /branding communal generalizations.
but the success of this film also portrays that how smart 'legitimate' violence of police forces can be packaged as commodity to lure viewers gratifications. though honest, brave , police inspector belongs to minority community but emerges only as a means to the prototypes of balanced film . as a matter of fact the whole design of film appeases 'majority'for asserting that 'they are not terrorist'.
gyanprakash has quite aptly revealed the 'intelligent design'of the film , while raising the questions about its persuasions and has aptly dissuaded its appeals .
deependra