Wrong moves mess up this game of chess

Wazir
Hindi (U/A)  ¬¬
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Aditi Rao Hydari and Manav Kaul
Director: Bejoy Nambiar

You have a handful of flowers, freshly plucked from the garden and a yarn to make a garland you have yearned for. The weaving starts but the director totally weaves his way through a predictable snarl-up of screenplay to nowhere.

Threatened by white collar people linked to terrorism, a grieving father who lost his daughter befriends a police officer with similar but fresh pain. An excellent plot.
I could have used words like “makes use of” instead of “befriends” but then it would have been a spoiler alert.

They play chess, share their histories and shayeris, drink vodka and start a friendship in which both can live and die for each other.

Although the movie starts with a Badlapur type of feel, it neither has a Sriram Raghavan on the director’s seat nor a Nawazuddin to keep you at the edge of your seat till the end. Rather you find a handicapped man (seated) at the wheel.

Trailers are deceiving and often big-banner films flop for the choice of a director. With debacles like David and Shaitan under his belt, Bejoy has misused gems like Farhan and Manav. Let’s not talk about BigB’s choice of another wrong movie here.

If you like Vidhu Vinod Chopra movies, this is certainly not a Mission Kashmir or 3 Idiots or close to a Parinda.

Even after roping in musical stalwart Shantanu Moitra, the producer had more faith in Ankit Tiwari, whose nasal songs are no different.

With nothing extraordinary from the cinematographer to the dialogue writer and a bad director to lead, you would definitely feel the main characters should not have chosen this movie at all.

P.S: Now, just imagine, what this movie could have been if it was The Farhan Akhtar both behind and in front of the camera.