A WEDNESDAY

We are resilient by force, says Naseeruddin Shah in the recently released ‘A Wednesday’. I had often read and heard Mumbai being congratulated for its resilience and wondered what this quality of ‘resilience’ is? I live in Delhi and had no way to observe the phenomenon first hand. Things changed two years back. A couple of days before Diwali there were blasts in Sarojini Nagar and Paharganj. The popular market in Sarojini Nagar saw entire families being wiped out, in some cases the blast left behind a young girl or a crippled father. Photographs of grieving relatives and charred bodies of children were enough to drive one crazy. However, I noticed that from the next day our markets were far from deserted, there were people all around, many of them excited about the ‘sale’ signs on shops. The newspapers and TV channels announced with pride that Delhi was no less resilient than Mumbai. Diwali was celebrated with the usual lights and noises. And I was never again comfortable with the idea of resilience. My discomfort turned to seething anger as I witnessed the Mumbai train blasts and its aftermath while on a vacation in Mumbai. The film, A Wednesday well captures this topical subject of the common man caught in the terrorism crosshair, albeit with populist and simplistic approach.
I saw ‘A Wednesday’ on the very day that the recent Delhi blasts happened. The situation in the film is familiar – a man holding a city to ransom to get some terrorists out of jail. The situation is truly desperate – the police loses if it sets the terrorists free and it loses if it doesn’t, unless they find and diffuse all the hidden bombs which would be well nigh impossible. The cops first concentrate their energies on finding this one ‘terrorist’ who has set this up, although how that would stop the bombs from going off is not clear. When that fails, the police gears up to fulfill his terrible demand of releasing four locked up terrorists. The film ends with a twist which I won’t give away, but it involves a fifteen-minute tirade against the system for lettings the common people die by the Naseeruddin Shah character (he doesn’t have a name in the film).
What Shah says in his angst-filled speech does ring true. The common people are easier targets of terrorism as against the politicians with Z grade securities. Public places and transport are prime targets. Public depends on the police for security but is consistently disappointed. And when this public wants justice brought to people responsible for the carnage it is again disappointed by delays, lack of evidence, etc. The film seems to argue that this fate of the aam aadmi may never change until one day one of them gets up and says enough is enough. So the film sets up a high tech drama that not only doles out justice to the guilty but also opens the eyes of old fashioned policewallahs, opportunistic journalists and generation Y techies.
The film is supposed to be a wake-up call to the system. The common man is not weak and this is what he can do. He can bring justice, act fast and execute terrorists he is convinced of the horrible acts even if they are yet to be convicted by the judiciary. This is a simplistic even fantastical approach to a grave problem. For how is this supposed to be an eye-opener for the so-called system? How does it enlighten a(n unemotional) system that works only to support its own survival? Is it supposed to work as a threat to the state institutions – we will kill the terrorists if you don’t OR a threat to the terrorists – if you don’t stop the killing of innocent people we will kill more of you? Also, does it not negate the route that a fair and just society should take or for that matter provide the larger correction to the national and international atmosphere that breeds terrorism?
As I said because of its topical appeal this fantasy-come-true, simplistic and agenda-filled film nonetheless tugs at your heart and gets the nod, if for the moment. I would have less of these reservations if the ‘common man’ taking on the system and the terrorists was killed in the end, as that then would have been a fitting end to a fantasy.
To sustain this Bollywood-style justice comes some well-written drama, fine editing and crisp story-telling. Despite a low-budget feel, the director, Neeraj Pandey has done his bit to give us a pan-city feel and a sense on the enormity of the issues. An ensemble of actors drives the story in a fast paced manner and with economy. Naseeruddin Shah is good at playing ‘the common man’ and seems to have jumped out of one of the RK Laxman cartoon pages. Anupam Kher and Jimmy Shergil play cops and they seem to be in form for once.
As far as our ‘resilience’ factor goes, I want to agree even to the film’s epithet that we are ‘resilient by force’, marta kya na karta. Because the alternative is worse – that all that there is, is plain APATHY!
- Padmaja Thakore
(First appeared on PFC: http://passionforcinema.com/author/padmaja/)