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''A Wednesday!'' is a 2008 Indian
Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
-language
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
written and directed by
Neeraj Pandey Neeraj Pandey (born 17 December 1973) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. Pandey was made his directoral debut in ''A Wednesday!'', which was largely praised by critics and which later became a recip ...
and produced by
Ronnie Screwvala Rohinton Soli "Ronnie" Screwvala (born 8 September 1956) is an Indian entrepreneur. He has been named on Esquire's List of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century and ranked 78 among the 100 most influential people in the world on t ...
, Anjum Rizvi and Shital Bhatia under
UTV Motion Pictures UTV Motion Pictures (also known as Disney-UTV) was the feature film unit of UTV Software Communications founded by Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Screwvala in 1996 as UTV Motion Pictures Plc., the film distribution division of UTV Software Communica ...
and Friday Filmworks. Though a work of fiction, the script is partly inspired by the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings. Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher, the only choices for the lead roles, star respectively as people on either sides of the system. Set between 2 pm and 6 pm on a Wednesday, the film depicts an about-to-retire police commissioner narrating a sequence of events that unfolded on a particular Wednesday. There does not exist any written record, as the awareness of the incident exists only in his mind and in those of several individuals who were involved, willingly and unwillingly, and how those events affected the lives of all the concerned people. It later inspired the Tamil and Telugu simultaneously made films '' Unnaipol Oruvan'' and ''
Eeenadu ''Unnaipol Oruvan'' (also released internationally under the translated title ''Someone Like You'') is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language vigilante thriller film directed by Chakri Toleti in his directorial debut. It stars Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal ...
'' (both 2009), and the Sri Lankan English film '' A Common Man'' (2013). The film, made at a small budget, was a
sleeper hit In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit is a film, television series, music release, video game, or some other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release but became a success later on. A sleeper hit may have little prom ...
at the box office grossing over Rs. 12 crore worldwide. Despite its low promotion, it was a box office success due to critical acclaim and positive word-of-mouth.
Box Office India Box Office India is an Indian film website. Its traffic ranking in India is 83,665 . A new Box Office India website went live on 20 January 2014. About Box Office India was launched on 10 June 2003. Its uses Whois privacy to anonymize its ow ...
declared it a hit. Critics praised the movie for its effective storyline and its twist ending. Subsequently, it won a number of awards including the
Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director The Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of seve ...
at the
56th National Film Awards The 56th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India to celebrate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2008. Three committees were ins ...
.


Plot

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
police commissioner Prakash Rathod ( Anupam Kher) describes in a
voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...
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 ( Naseeruddin Shah) carries a travel bag, assumed to contain explosives, in the
Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Bombay station code: CSMT ( mainline)/ST (suburban)), is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The terminus was d ...
railway station and proceeds to hide the bag in the restroom of a
police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, ...
opposite the Mumbai Police headquarters. He then goes to the rooftop of a building under construction where he set up his base of operations, equipped with sim cards, mobile phones, and other gadgets. He calls Rathod and informs him that he has placed five bombs in locations throughout Mumbai and has programmed them to explode simultaneously within four hours unless the Commissioner gives in to his demands and releases four
terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
. Rathod alerts his team to trace the location of the caller. The caller tips off television news reporter Naina Roy (
Deepal Shaw Deepal Shaw is an Indian actress, singer and model who has worked in Bollywood movies. She was born in Mumbai on 22 Feb 1988. Early life Shaw attended St. Xavier's College, where she pursued a BA in Psychology. Career Career as a model S ...
), telling her it is going to be "the most important day of her life". The four
terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
demanded by the caller are rounded up by police officers Arif ( Jimmy Sheirgill) and Jai (
Aamir Bashir Aamir Bashir is a Kashmiri actor, film producer, and director. Early life and education Bashir was born and raised in Kashmir, the son of the retired Chief Justice of Jammu High Court. He is a graduate of St. Stephen's College, University of ...
). Police depute a young hacker named Anuj to track the location of the caller. The caller asks the two police officers to leave the four militants near a bench on a Juhu Aviation Base runway, but Arif leaves only three behind and takes one of them, Ibrahim Khan, captive as he suspects that the caller would not reveal the locations of the bombs even after the militants are released. 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 The 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts on 11 July. They took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capit ...
. 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

* Anupam Kher as Prakash Rathod, Commissioner of Mumbai Police * Naseeruddin Shah as "The Common Man" * Jimmy Sheirgill as Inspector Arif Khan, ATS *
Aamir Bashir Aamir Bashir is a Kashmiri actor, film producer, and director. Early life and education Bashir was born and raised in Kashmir, the son of the retired Chief Justice of Jammu High Court. He is a graduate of St. Stephen's College, University of ...
as Inspector Jai Pratap Singh *
Deepal Shaw Deepal Shaw is an Indian actress, singer and model who has worked in Bollywood movies. She was born in Mumbai on 22 Feb 1988. Early life Shaw attended St. Xavier's College, where she pursued a BA in Psychology. Career Career as a model S ...
as Naina Roy, UTV Journalist * Alok Narula as Raj Sharma; Naina Roy's Cameraman *
Rohitash Gaud Rohitash Gour (born 24 March 1966) is an Indian actor best known for his leading character in the TV sitcoms '' Lapataganj'' and '' Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai!''. He has also acted in films like ''Lage Raho Munna Bhai'', ''Kya Kehna'', ''Munna Bhai ...
as Ikhlaque Ahmed (A terrorist) *
Kali Prasad Mukherjee Kali Prasad Mukherjee (born 20 November 1966) is an Indian film and television actor who is best known for playing supporting roles in Bollywood films and Indian soap opera Indian television drama (in Indian English Indian serials) are tel ...
as Ibrahim Khan (A terrorist) * Mukesh S Bhatt as Khurshid lala (A terrorist) * Vije Bhatia as Mohd. Zaheer (A terrorist) *
Chetan Pandit Chetan Pandit is an Indian Bollywood film and television actor. He played the role of Jayaprakash Narayan in the Prakash Jha-directed film '' Loknayak'' in 2004. Filmography Film Television * ''Punar Vivah'' as Suraj Pratap Sindhia * '' Ka ...
as Chief Minister Sunil Nigvekar *
Rajendra Chawla Rajendra Chawla is an Indian actor predominantly known for his roles in the films ''A Wednesday!'', ''Mumbai Mirror'', '' M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story'', and '' Paisa Paisa'', and the television series ''Saas Bina Sasural'', ''Ghar Ki Lakshmi Be ...
as Jaishankar Tiwary; Chief Minister's Assistant *
Gaurav Kapoor Gaurav Kapur (born 11 April 1981), also spelled as Gaurav Kapoor is an Indian actor, television and cricket presenter known for being the host of the pre-match Indian Premier League show, '' Extraaa Innings T20, Cricbuzz Live and his youtube show ...
as Arjun Khanna (Actor); Special Appearance *
Virendra Saxena Virendra Saxena (born 23 November 1951) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi theatre, film, and television. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Saxena is known for his character roles as well as his unique voice. He has acted in ...
as Officer In-Charge (O.C) Baburao Patil at Colaba Police Station. *
Snehal Dabi Snehal Dabi (born 24 February 1977) is an Indian actor, writer, director, and producer born into a Gujarati family and brought up in Mumbai. He is a theater performer since his school days. He has performed in Hindi language films, Marathi, G ...
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 Sawhney as The Common Man's wife; VOICE OVER


Soundtrack

Music composition by
Sanjoy Chowdhury Sanjoy Chowdhury is an Indian film score composer. He debuted in 1998, by composing the background score of the Malayalam movie, ''Ennu Swantham Janakikutty''. Shortly afterwards, filmmaker John Matthew Matthan roped him in to compose the backgrou ...
with lyrics inscribed by
Irshad Kamil Irshad Kamil (born 5 September 1971) is an Indian poet and lyricist. His songs appear in Bollywood films including ''Jab We Met'', '' Chameli'', '' Love Aaj Kal'', '' Rockstar'', ''Aashiqui 2, Raanjhanaa, Highway, Tamasha,'' and ''Jab Harry Me ...
&
Bulleh Shah Syed Abdullah Shah Qadri ( pa, ; ; 1680–1757), known popularly as Bulleh Shah ( pa, ; ) and Bulleya, was a Punjabi philosopher and Sufi poet during 17th-century Punjab. His ancestors had migrated from Bukhara (modern-day Uzbekistan) ...
. 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. It was filmed on location around
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
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. 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. Though a work of fiction, the script was inspired by the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings. In fact, the incidents that followed the bombings were used as details in the plot. 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.


Release

The release was delayed because UTV's own production, ''
Mumbai Meri Jaan ''Mumbai Meri Jaan'' (Hindi: , translation: ''Mumbai, My Life'') is a 2008 Indian drama film directed by Nishikant Kamat and produced by Ronnie Screwvala. It stars R. Madhavan, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal and Kay Kay Menon. It dea ...
'' (2008), also based on the Mumbai train serial blasts, was scheduled for an August release. ''A Wednesday!'' was released in September alongside '' Hijack'' and Santosh Sivan's '' Tahaan''.


Reception

''A Wednesday!'' received critical acclaim with many comparing it to the movies of the ''Die Hard'' series. In a ''
Tehelka ''Tehelka'' (Hindi: Sensation) is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and a ...
'' review, while commending Neeraj Pandey for a tightly scripted film, "red herrings, finely etched characters", also noted "(for the film), the real Anupam Kher, whom we met in ''
Saaransh Saaransh (English: The Gist ) is a 1984 Indian Hindi drama film directed by Mahesh Bhatt, starring Anupam Kher, Rohini Hattangadi, Madan Jain, Nilu Phule, Suhas Bhalekar and Soni Razdan. It is about an elderly Maharashtrian couple living in M ...
'', and the real Naseeruddin Shah, whom we knew from '' Bazaar'' and '' Mandi'' and '' Sparsh'', both show up." ''
The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...
'''s critic Nikhat Kazmi called the movie "an intelligent diatribe against terrorism, refreshingly packaged as a racy thriller, reminiscent of the Die Hard Series." Rony D'Costa of
Box Office India Box Office India is an Indian film website. Its traffic ranking in India is 83,665 . A new Box Office India website went live on 20 January 2014. About Box Office India was launched on 10 June 2003. Its uses Whois privacy to anonymize its ow ...
gave it 3 stars out of 5, stating "it will take just 100 minutes of your time but will give you an exciting & enriching movie going experience. A good watch, any day of the week." Noted critic
Rajeev Masand Rajeev Masand is an Indian film critic and journalist. He has worked for Noida based English language news channel CNN-Indian Broadcasting Network (CNN-IBN). He usually reviews Bollywood films and major Hollywood films released in India in his ...
of ''
CNN-IBN CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internat ...
'' gave 4 out of 5 stars, and a positive review saying, "It's difficult to explain just how good A Wednesday is without giving away too much about the film. Because believe me, it's a film best seen without any impressions. It's a film whose charm lies in its unraveling". ''
The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bu ...
s critic, Gaurav Malani, wrote, "A Wednesday is one of those rare variety films about which one can't discuss much despite a strong desire for it could hamper your viewing experience as an unappraised audience. It's a film one wants to rave liberally about but even then you can't conveniently converse on the instances of acclaim since those are the moments of surreptitious surprise held in reserve by the director. It's the kind of film that is discussed in detail once it acquires the cult status." He also gave it 4 stars out of 5. Anupama Chopra of
NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...
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".


Box office

''A Wednesday!'' grossed around Rs 120 million in India.Boxofficeindia.com
Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
The film had a distributor share of Rs 44,600,000 in India.Boxofficeindia.com
Boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
It gave satisfying results to the producers, distributors and exhibitors.


Awards and nominations


Remakes

The film was remade into Tamil and Telugu. The Tamil version had Kamal Haasan and
Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically app ...
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 Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...
and
Ben Cross Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947 – 18 August 2020) was an English stage and film actor. He was best known for playing Billy Flynn in the original West End production of the musical ''Chicago'', and his portrayal of the British Ol ...
.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wednesday, A 2008 films 2000s Hindi-language films Films scored by Sanjoy Chowdhury Indian thriller drama films 2008 thriller drama films Hindi films remade in other languages Films set in Mumbai Films about organised crime in India Films directed by Neeraj Pandey Fictional portrayals of the Maharashtra Police UTV Motion Pictures films Best Debut Feature Film of a Director National Film Award winners Films about terrorism in India Indian vigilante films 2008 directorial debut films 2008 drama films 2000s vigilante films Indian action thriller films