Wazir
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Directed by: Bejoy Nambiar
Produced by: Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani
Written by: Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Dialogue by: Abhijeet Deshpande and Gazal Dhaliwal (Additional Dialogue)
Screenplay by: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi and Bejoy Nambiar (Additional Screenplay)
Story by: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Aditi Rao Hydari, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham
Music by: Shantanu Moitra, Ankit Tiwari, Advaita (band), Prashant Pillai, Rochak Kohli, Gaurav Godkhindi
Background Score: Rohit Kulkarni
Cinematography: Sanu Varghese
Edited by: Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijat Joshi
Production company: Vinod Chopra Films and Rajkumar Hirani Films
Distributed by: Reliance Entertainment
Release dates: 8 January 2016
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Story line:
The film tells the story of two unusual friends—a paralysed chess grandmaster and a grief stricken ATS officer—brought together by a peculiar twist of fate as part of a wider conspiracy that has cast a dark shadow over their lives. The idea of Wazir came to Vidhu Vinod Chopra after badminton player Syed Modi was shot dead on 28 July, 1988 in Lucknow. However, Chopra claims that this film is completely different from the incident. When Chopra met his writer Abhijat Joshi in 1994, he told him about the idea of setting a thriller around two chess players. The title of the film had gone through several changes including Fifth Move, 64 Squares and Chess being some of them. Later, between 2000 to 2004, they both wrote it in english. It was supposed to be Chopra’s first Hollywood film, with Dustin Hoffman playing the protagonist. In 2005, their producer Robert Newmyer suddenly passed away. The script of Wazir took five years to complete. Then Chopra saw the black-and-white portions of Bejoy Nambiar’s David (2013), which he liked. Later Chopra recalls: “I called him (Bejoy), and I have an almirah (Cupboard) full of scripts, so I opened it and asked him ‘Which one? He picked this one. Then we worked for two more years on it.”
The working title of the film was Do, which was changed to Wazir in October 2014. Both Chopra and Joshi consulted chess experts from America for the film. The cinematography of the film is done by Sanu Varghese, who had previously worked with Nambiar in David. The films story was tweaked constantly during its seven-month editing period. This is the first film edited by Chopra after his directorial venture Parinda (1989). Joshi, who is also first time editor of this film, believed that “a film is rewritten on the editing table.”Visual effects were used to hide Bachchan’s leg, and to make him look disabled. He weared black socks with marks on them to enhance CGI in it. he wheelchair on which he sits throughout the film was chosen among 40 to 50 wheelchairs. When Neil Nitin Mukesh was offered the role, the film was titled Ek Aur Ek Do, which was later changed by Chopra to Wazir; based on the character name of Nitin Mukesh in it.
Know more about the captain of the Ship, the director:
Bejoy Nambiar is an Indian story writer, screenwriter and director. He is mostly known for his critically acclaimed short films, Rahu and Reflections, starring Mohanlal. He was the winner of Sony PIX’ s Gateway to Hollywood, as the best director judged by Ashok Amritraj, Rajat Kapoor and Anurag Basu. He marked his feature film debut with the Hindi film Shaitan (2011).[citation needed] His second feature film was a bilingual gangster-comedy film called David. He has also directed a short video ‘Sachinocalypse’ for All India Bakchod. He was one of the jury member for India Film Project in 2013.
My Gut Feel and comments:
Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra teamed earlier as well as co writers where those films were either directed by Raju Hirani or Vidhu vinodchopra himself. Here is the first time where Bejoy Nambiar is directing a movie under the banner of Vinod Chopra Films. This is indeed an interesting team who worked with patience and passionately at the same time in the making of Wazir. Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra earlier written the movie and screenplay in english however later adapted it as per hindi cinema audience sensibility and finally titled it wazir. Bijoy as director has been associated with experimental cinema as he directed off beat movies like Shaitan and David other then critically acclaimed short films, Rahu and Reflections, starring Mohanlal. Trailer of wazir is smartly edited and do manage to create the buzz and curiosity among its targeted audience as both Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar are looking refreshing and story seems interesting too with twists and turns. Wazir is going to be first hindi commercial movie release of 2016. Going by the trade analysts first month of the year generally go slow as far as movie business is concern. That’s why usually you hardly found big releases in the month of January. Although by the time of release of wazir both Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani would be three weeks old still knowing the sensibility of masses Wazir would found it tough to register huge box office success.
Going by my gut feeling I am giving this movie 3.5 star out of 5, four days before the release.