A Wednesday [2008]

Directed by debutant filmmaker Neeraj Pandey, A Wednesday is an assured thriller with a subject matter that is very relevant for today’s India (and more so, ironically, for Mumbai – the city this film is based on). Based on a fateful Wednesday afternoon, the movie chronicles the sensational attempt of a “stupid common man” to make a powerful statement to those concerned. At less than 90 minutes, this crisply edited and whirlwind of a thriller could easily qualify as one of the shortest outputs of Bollywood. The acting, too, is spot on, with the brigade being led by the iconic character actor Naseeruddin Shah at his most powerful as well as nuanced and identifiable. Though the message at times borders on the rhetoric, and the resources that the “stupid common man” calls upon and the precision with which he operates might seem too fantastic to believe, they might easily be ignored for the sake of the basic intent of the director and originality of the plot. This is a smart effort with an even smarter final twist.









Director: Neeraj Pandey
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller
Language: Hindi
Country: India