A Wednesday: Good movie but...

Harry Potter once stumbled across a mirror which reflected the deepest desires of the person looking into it. The images were so seductive that a person could spend the whole of his life just looking at it, so the wise Dumbledore warned Harry.

A Wednesday had a similar kind of effect on me. Rationally I know that vigilante justice is wrong. However, looking at the utter incapability of our police in nabbing terrorists, there is a small part of me that wants to cheer a person who would have the guts to do what Naseeruddin Shah does in the movie. A Wednesday is one of the best directed movies I have seen in a really long time. Neeraj Pandey's (the director)first attempt at directing makes me salivate for more goodies. Its terse, tight, and packs a punch. Of course, with actors such as Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah playing the main roles its difficult to go wrong (although its been known to happen, remember Anupam Kher in some of the worst mainstream movies!)

Here, Anupam Kher as Inspector Prakash Rathod gives a fantastic performance. Cynical yet dedicated, he tries to negotiate with an anonymous caller who claims to have planted bombs in various places in Mumbai. A little into the movie, we realise that Naseeruddin Shah is the person who plants bombs. For the most part, he appears to be another of those deadly Islamic terrorists with an ordinary face who wants to wreak vengeance for his cause (whatever that might be). However, as the movie moves towards the climax, the plots twists into something else entirely. It turns out that Shah is not a terrorist but one who claims to be a representative of the Common Man a la R.K. Laxman. Tired of the incompetence of the police in ensuring safety for the common man, he takes it upon himself to destroy four dreaded terrorists. However, he knows the only way to ensure that they are killed is to blackmail the police into releasing the 4 terrorists and killing them himself.

The only slightly "filmy" part of the movie is where Shah launches into a diatribe against state incompetence and the vulnerability of the common man who has no religion, caste, creed or danger. Just ordinary citizens trying to go about their daily business.

What scares me is the topicality of the movie. The day that I watched the movie was a Sunday at PVR Saket. It was probably the first time that my friend and I managed to get tickets for the movie just 10 mins before the show. For that, we have the series of bomb blasts in Delhi to thank for. One could see the fear in people as they meekly submitted to thorough security checks and looked around suspiciously for any unclaimed packages lying around.

While no one disputes that the police are incompetent, they are also hampered by the fact that they get inadequate training, inadequate pay and manpower. Top it off with constant political interference and its a wonder that India as a country functions at all. It also does not help when every action of the police (even legitimate ones) is viewed through the prism of communalism. Instead of condemning the terrorists who kill, a number of members of the Muslim community and a number of activists claiming to be "secular" (without ever defining what exactly it means to them) or protectors of "human rights" (it begs the question, which humans, when they only seem to come out of the wood work after some terrorists have been nabbed), want to tarnish every action of the police. I think they don't realise that they are really not doing a service to the minority community. For good or bad, in a democracy, state is or should be the only agency that can use violence as a legitimate way of dealing with criminals. If they undermine the state, they are endangering all citizens of the country. No one is questioning the need for reforms in the state organs. That has been overdue for ages. But there is a difference between systematically denigrating the system of law and order in the country and agitating for reforms. Because at the end of the day, the best protection for any person can only come from the state, not from vigilantes of any type.