Life takes a harsh turn for the happily married couple of Daanish & Ruhana as they get to loose their loved daughter Noorie in an ensuing ambush when Daanish drives Noorie to her practice. A disillusioned Ruhana wants to spend some alone time and hence Daanish goes into recluse. After a failed attempt at committing suicide, he finds the wallet of Omkar Nath Dhar, a chess grandmaster who taught chess to Noorie. He meets Omkar to return his wallet, when things take an interesting turn. What happens next forms the gameplay of this movie.
Language:
Hindi
Running Time:
102 min
Rating:
U/A
Release date:
08 January 2016
Directed by:
Bejoy Nambiar
Produced by:
Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Written by:
Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Abhijat Joshi
Abhijeet Deshpande
Gazal Dhaliwal
Abhijeet Deshpande
Starring:
Amitabh Bachchan
Farhan Akhtar
Aditi Rao Hydari
Manav Kaul
John Abraham
Neil Nitin Mukesh
Music by:
Ankit Tiwari
Gaurav Godkhindi
Prashant Pillai
Rochak Kohli
Shantanu Moitra
Shot by:
Sanu Varghese
Editing by:
Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Abhijat Joshi
Distributed by:
Reliance Entertainment

What’s Hot

  • The story is a unique attempt and it is enjoyable if one can relate to the game of chess. It is so religiously tied to chess that the lyrics and choreography are set with the theme of chess along with the movie’s title.
  • Farhan Akhtar as Daanish and Amitabh Bachchan as Omkar Nath Dhar have carried the movie with some intense acting performances along with a mature portrayal by Aditi Rao Hydari. Special mention goes to the scenes where Daanish is taught to play Chess and the way he duels with Omkar, apart from Omkar’s passionate plea to Ruhana to consider Daanish’s case and pardon him.
  • Sanu Varghese’s camera has done a wonderful job of capturing action sequences and the climax sequence of when things hit Daanish. Ruhana the danseuse looks stunning in Sanu’s lens.
  • Bejoy Nambiar has done neat work of his job as director. He has taken a simple story of angst and vengeance and tied it to a game with silent aggression.

What’s Not

  • The movie borrows ideas from the game of chess and hence, tends to slow down a bit during the middle game. This is probably due to Bejoy Nambiar giving the viewers enough clues to understand the movie and follow with it.

Badges

Story
Direction
Acting

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

Wazir tells the story of a weak pawn(Omkar) taking the help of a strong pawn(Daanish) to bring down the opposition king(Yazaad) like how the fairy piece Wazir does in classical chess. Though simple, it is effective in its storytelling with some packed performances by its cast and crew.