A Wednesday!
A Wednesday | |
---|---|
Directed by | Neeraj Pandey |
Written by | Neeraj Pandey |
Produced by | Ronnie Screwvala Shital Bhatia Anjum Rizvi |
Starring | Naseeruddin Shah Anupam Kher Jimmy Sheirgill Aamir Bashir Deepal Shaw |
Cinematography | Fuwad Khan |
Edited by | Shree Narayan Singh |
Music by | Sanjoy Chowdhury |
Production companies | Friday Filmworks Anjum Rizvi Film Company |
Distributed by | UTV Motion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes[1] |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Box office | ₹ 12 crore[2] |
A Wednesday! is a 2008 Indian
The film was released on 5 September 2008. It was critically acclaimed widespread and emerged as a commercial success.[5] It was also granted tax exemption in the state of Maharashtra.[6] Subsequently, it won a number of awards including the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director at the 56th National Film Awards. It went on to be remade in Tamil and Telugu simultaneously as Unnaipol Oruvan and Eenadu (both 2009), and as an English-language Sri Lankan film A Common Man (2013).
Plot
Mumbai police commissioner Prakash Rathod describes in a voice-over that he is going to retire the following day. He goes on to describe the most challenging case he faced in his career.
An unnamed man carries a travel bag, assumed to contain
The four
A phone placed under the bench rings and an explosion occurs, killing the three terrorists. The anonymous caller reveals he does not belong to any terrorist organization, and his plan was not to free the terrorists but to kill them. The caller, being just a "stupid common man wanting to clean his house", sought to avenge the terrorist attacks they had helped carry out in major cities in India, specifically the 2006 Mumbai train bombings. His final demand is that the officers kill Ibrahim themselves or he will set off all five bombs in Mumbai. Rathod indirectly orders Arif and Jai to kill Ibrahim and make it look like it was done in self-defense.
After the death of Ibrahim is confirmed on the news, the caller calls Rathod for a final time to reveal that he has not planted any other bombs in the city. Rathod declares he already knew there were no more bombs hence his decision to kill the last terrorist was not taken in fear but in confidence. Rathod reaches the caller's location just as the caller is leaving, having destroyed all his equipment. The two meet briefly when Rathod, identifying the caller on the basis of a face sketch, offers the man a ride home.
In a voiceover, Rathod says the man told him his real name, but he does not wish to reveal it since doing so would give away the man's religion. Rathod admits that he knew the caller was disturbed because of the incompetence of the governing authorities, but he never imagined a common man would go to such lengths to achieve this end. He also notes that the facts of this incident cannot be found in any written record but only in the memories of those who actually witnessed it, and further acknowledges that although the incident has ambiguous moral significance, he personally feels that whatever happened, happened for the best.
Cast
- Naseeruddin Shah as "The Common Man"
- Anupam Kher as Prakash Rathod, Commissioner of Mumbai Police
- ATS
- Aamir Bashir as Inspector Jai Pratap Singh
- Deepal Shaw as Naina Roy, UTV Journalist
- Parag Tyagi as Inspector Aakash Duraivanshi
- Alok Narulaas Raj Sharma; Naina Roy's Cameraman
- Rohitash Gaudas Ikhlaque Ahmed (A terrorist)
- Kali Prasad Mukherjee as Ibrahim Khan (A terrorist)
- Mukesh S Bhatt as Khurshid lala (A terrorist)
- Vije Bhatia as Mohd. Zaheer (A terrorist)
- Chetan Pandit as Chief Minister Sunil Nigvekar
- Rajendra Chawla as Jaishankar Tiwary; Chief Minister's Assistant
- Gaurav Kapooras Arjun Khanna (Actor); Special Appearance
- Virendra Saxena as Officer In-Charge (O.C) Baburao Patil at ColabaPolice Station.
- Snehal Dabi as Shambhu a.k.a. Electric Baba
- Aayam Mehta as Shankar Patil; Chief Minister's Assistant
- Apurva Mehrotra as Anuj Sharma; The Hacker
- Shakti Bharti as Inspector Jai Pratap Singh's wife
- Vicky Ahuja as a middleman who supplied RDX
- Namrata Sawhneyas The Common Man's wife; VOICE OVER
Soundtrack
Music composition by Sanjoy Chowdhury with lyrics inscribed by Irshad Kamil & Bulleh Shah. The soundtrack album is released under T-Series label. 6 Songs In Album, But No-one Features In Movie.
- "Theme Song" - N/A
- "Bekali" - Javed Ali
- "Bulleh Shah" - Tochi Raina
- "Bulleh Shah - Remix" - Tochi Raina
- "Jalwa" - Shaan
- "Nazar Lage Na" - Shaan, Mahalakshmi Iyer
- "Parwazen" - Shaan
Production
From casting to completion, A Wednesday! took about eight months.[7] It was filmed on location around Mumbai in 28 days. The terrorist's 'workstation' was an actual under-construction 25-storey building; it was chosen from 50 other such buildings for its clear view of the Mumbai skyline. Since the building had no elevators, a trolley lift was installed; Shah walked up the 25 floors every day.[8] Shah mentioned in an interview that it was the first film of his career where he did not change a single word. He was first offered Kher's role.[9]
Though a work of fiction,
After finishing the script, Pandey sent it to Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah, who were his only choice for the two principal characters. Once both accepted the roles, he approached the producer Anjum Rizvi who liked the subject and the casting. Meanwhile, UTV Motion Pictures heard of the project, took it on, and bought the film's rights from Rizvi and Pandey.[7]
Release
The release was delayed because UTV's own production, Mumbai Meri Jaan (2008), also based on the Mumbai train serial blasts, was scheduled for an August release. A Wednesday! was released in September[7] alongside Hijack and Santosh Sivan's Tahaan.
Reception
A Wednesday! received critical acclaim with many comparing it to the movies of the
Noted critic
Anupama Chopra of NDTV thought the film to be a "provocative theatre. Its message is urgent and relevant but also disturbing and dangerous." She also felt what it suggested was "implausible".[15]
Box office
A Wednesday! grossed around Rs 120 million in India.[2] The film had a distributor share of Rs 44,600,000 in India.[16] It gave satisfying results to the producers, distributors and exhibitors.[17]
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Status | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | 56th National Film Awards | Best Debut Film of a Director | Neeraj Pandey | Won | [18] |
2009 | 54th Filmfare Awards | Best Director |
Nominated | [19] | |
Best Actor |
Naseeruddin Shah | ||||
Screen Awards | Best Film | Ronnie Screwvala, Shital Bhatia, Anjum Rizvi | Nominated | [20] | |
Best Director |
Neeraj Pandey | Won | |||
Best Story
| |||||
Most Promising Debut Director | |||||
Best Actor | Naseeruddin Shah | Nominated | |||
Best Supporting Actor | Anupam Kher | ||||
Best Background Music |
Sanjoy Chowdhury | ||||
Best Editing |
Shree Narayan Singh | ||||
Best Screenplay | Neeraj Pandey | ||||
Best Dialogue | |||||
Best Sound Designing | Rakesh Ranjan | ||||
Best Art Director | Sunil Nigvekar | ||||
2009 | 3rd Asia Pacific Screen Awards | Best Actor | Naseeruddin Shah | [21] |
Remakes
The film was remade into Tamil and Telugu. The Tamil version had Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal in lead roles, while the Telugu version had Kamal Haasan and Venkatesh in the lead.
UTV sold the rights of the film to Asia Media and Gemini Media, which remade it into A Common Man, starring Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross.[22]
References
- ^ "A Wednesday". British Board of Film Classification.
- ^ a b Boxofficeindia.com. Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
- ^ "Saif's Phantom to Akshay's Baby: How Bollywood has dealt with terrorism on screen", India Today. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- ^ a b "Naseer and Anupam Kher are poles apart'". Rediff.com Movies. 2 September 2008.
- ^ "A Wednesday! - Movie". Box Office India.
- ^ "'A Wednesday' tax-free in Maharashtra". Bollywood Hungama. 18 October 2008. Retrieved 18 October 2008.
- ^ a b c d "Neeraj Pandey taking it easy after A Wednesday". Hindustan Times. 25 September 2008. Archived from the original on 9 February 2011.
- DNA. 4 September 2008.
- ^ Naseeruddin Shah REVEALS He Was First Offered Anupam Kher's Role In 'A Wednesday'. Bollywood Hungama. India. 5 February 2018 – via YouTube.
- ^ CNN-IBN. 6 September 2008. Archived from the originalon 1 November 2008. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
- ^ a b "A Wednesday". The Times of India.
- ^ "The take: Games Everyman Plays". Tehelka. 20 September 2008. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012.
- ^ "A Wednesday – Review". Box Office India. 15 November 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
- ^ "A Wednesday: Movie Review". The Times of India. 5 September 2008.
- ^ "A Wednesday". NDTV. 29 September 2008. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013.
- ^ Boxofficeindia.com. Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
- ^ "Small Film Bandwagon A Huge Misconception". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
- "Box Office 2008". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 17 August 2013. - ^ "56th National Film Awards" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2013.
- ^ "Nominations for 54th Filmfare Awards 2009". Sify.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- ^ "Star Screen Awards nominations". India Cine. 8 January 2009.
- ^ "Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominees & Winners Archive 2009". www.asiapacificscreenacademy.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
- ^ "A common man's victory". The Times of India. 28 September 2011. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014.
External links
- A Wednesday at IMDb
- A Wednesday! at Rotten Tomatoes