Watch A Wednesday! For Free

One of my all time favorites.

Best movie ever!

A lot of fun.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

I recently decided to try a few Indian films, something I had not yet done despite being a massive fan of world cinema. Where better to start than the films that are in the IMDb top 250? First came Like Stars on Earth ... absolutely fantastic. Then 3 Idiots ... very very good. Then A Wednesday ... oh dear. I had such high expectations and was sorely disappointed. It's not that this is a bad film (the 1 or 2/10 reviews are ridiculous). it's just that it is a 'nothing' film. The acting is totally forgettable, with not a single compelling character. The cop who is supposed to be the 'bad cop' does nothing worse than partake in some dreadfully executed slapping scenes, the police chief is perfunctory bordering on dull and even the 'common man' baddie is unconvincing. The attempts at humour are cringe-worthy. The whole film has an air of all-been-done-before. If it was Holly not Bollywood this film would sink without a trace, being enjoyed by people when it comes out and then swiftly forgotten as it joins the endless heap of films with the same construct. Yet it sits in the top 250! There is not one single thing about this film that is anything but ordinary at best.Of course it is a totally different film to 3 Idiots or Like Stars on Earth but those films had magical qualities and were so unique only Indian cinema could have produced them. This film could have been done anywhere, Perhaps it is a mere aberration that it appears in the top 250 but suddenly I can no longer safely rely on such a film being at least high quality whether I enjoyed it or not. It really is mind-blowing that so many people think this is an incredible film. I give it a generous six.

Do you want do watch a thriller Bollywood movie similar to decent ones like Drishyam? Don't even think about watching this one. The movie's biggest problem is its ridiculous style. Every time it's meant to be dramatic, it uses slow motion along with some unbelievably overdramatic music. Two cheap ways to create excitement - and it doesn't work at all in A Wednesday. The production quality isn't exactly good either. Aside from the uninspired shots of the Mumbai rooftops, the sound effects is an embarrassment. They aren't believable and they use the same ones in every fight. "Is some getting kicked twice? Lets use the same lame sound effect twice after one another." I've never noticed sound effects this bad before. But here it is impossible to ignore. The plot is a typical "terrorist blackmailing the police"-one. With a man sitting on a rooftop, making demands from a series of untraceable calls. But we don't get to see the people that he threatens to kill, so its hard to really care about the stakes. The only reason I managed to see this entire movie without falling asleep was the high tempo. All other aspects of this movie are terrible. Overall, this doesn't feel like a top 250-movie at all. More like a mediocre TV-movie. Watch something else. Anything.

I was intrigued enough with this film to watch the phone conversation between Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher) and The Common Man (Naseeruddin Shah) more than once, the one in which the The Common Man explained his rationale for taking out four terrorists selected at random. Perhaps here in America we haven't been affected by terrorism to the same degree as some countries in Europe and the Middle East, so this film may serve as a warning of sorts.Though it's already almost a decade old now, the story explains the frustration of the average citizen who's simply fed up with the way government agencies and authorities deal with the completely irrational acts of destruction committed by rabid extremists. The Common Man states it very simply - "... what do you do if a cockroach enters your house?" It's a very good analogy, but political correctness and undeserved compassion often intrudes on rational decisions, and as The Common Man frustratingly observes, it sometimes takes ten years to convict a murderer when observable fats are clear enough to see by anyone willing to see them.The scene in which Rathod and The Common Man eventually meet is also a powerful one, with the viewer contemplating the outcome, wondering whether the police commissioner will do his legal duty or opt to let the matter rest, secure in the knowledge that The Common Man represents not a particular religion or sect, but the common humanity of all good citizens who obey the law and strive to be decent members of the community. I probably would never have known about this film if I hadn't been following IMDb's list of the Top 250 films, and in this case, the viewers here pointed me to a very worthwhile film experience.

While I understand A Wednesday did some good job in heavy uplifting patriotism, is it enough for it to be placed into top 250? I do not think so. I see most of the reviews are a bit, how to put it, "overly-benevolent", I suppose written by people moved by the message.While movie have some interesting moments, it is slow paced, unimaginative, predictable, unrealistic and in my opinion, too long. Come on, I feel like 75% of all scenes was just a cops and politicians playing important while heroic music plays - that's it - good guys walking in a corridor (lot of corridors out there, believe me) and music, talking to a phone (you mostly cannot hear what they are saying) and music, waiting in a car and music, sitting, standing and so on. But the story was there, it just the movie should have been shorter by half. Occasional action is laughable. That is said, if you can call a scene of a some sort of cop beating some sort of thug into a pulp with his 90's midi sound waves superpower (checked, nobody came to any real harm for sure) an action. But short laugh usually came to end shortly afterwards, as some pretty nasty humiliating moments happened to the bad guys (they all are...bad guys...right?), which made me a bit sick (hooray - true emotion).So to wrap it up, it is a movie showing message of hatred to the bad guys. You hate them bad guys? Then it is a chance you will enjoy this movie. I know terrorism and stuff is a bad thing and so on - OK, but make a quality movie about it, then I bet it will be welcomed into top 250 with open arms.