Azhar Review

Mohammed Azharuddin has always been a polarizing figure in India. He is widely regarded as one of the best Indian captains ever and is also disliked by a lot of people for his involvement in match-fixing scandal and his various affairs. The fact of the matter is he’s a convicted match fixer but a movie told with his support can’t be expected to give an objective point of view of events. Azhar promises to be an entertaining movie from the trailers and that’s how it should be judged.

Story: The makers warn us that the movie is NOT based on the life of Mohd. Azharuddin at the beginning of the film, but that is probably to escape lawsuits. Azhar tells the story of the rise of Azhar (Emraan) from a humble background to becoming the captain of India and playing 99 tests. And then the epic fall from grace when he was convicted of match fixing. All this is interluded with snippets from his personal life where he leaves his first wife Naureen (Prachi Desai) for Bollywood actress Sangeeta (Nargis Fakhri).

Screenplay and Direction: Azhar is an entertaining account of a cricketer who has everything and then somehow manages to lose it all. But, it feels like a propaganda piece to get the public back on the side of the cricketer. The story is painted just from the perspective of the protagonist and there is no cross referencing. The details are poorly etched out (Sangeeta was married to Azhar in 1996 but in the movie they have just recently been acquainted). Ultimately, it fails to swing the audiences in favour of Azhar even if the movie feels like a breeze because it covers so much so quickly. The courtroom sequences should have been a lot better handled, however.

Azhar Review

The biggest gripe anyone can have about a period movie is the mismanagement of detailing and here it is on offer in almost every alternate scene. The production design is decent but the cinematography feels very clichéd and TV show-like. The editing is crisp and the costume design is astute. The music of Azhar is a big letdown for an Emraan Hashmi film as none of the songs have it in them to become earworms for the audience. Even the reprised Oye Oye is lackluster.

Acting: Azhar is played by Emraan Hashmi who doesn’t vaguely look similar to Azharuddin. And Emraan is not able to fully connect with his character, even though full marks should be given to him for trying his level best. The lopsided posture and the speaking style was a good touch. But, we’d prefer Emraan as the bookie over Emraan as the cricketer. Prachi Desai does an appropriate job. Nargis Fakhri suits her character and isn’t particularly bad. Gautam Gulati makes a good impression, Manjot Singh is astute and Varun Badola as Kapil was a bad decision. Rajesh Sharma is good as the scheming bookie.

Conclusion: If you go in expecting a film full of revelations which will change your point-of-view about Mohd Azharuddin then you’re in for a massive disappointment as this movie feels very much one-sided and uncomfortably so. However, it plays very well as an entertaining fictional flick because it never gets boring and the proceedings on screen take place very fast. If you’re in the mood for an entertaining flick about our Indian cricketers, then Azhar should be your choice this week.

Pros:

• It is entertaining and never gets dull
• The editing and costume design is nice
• The nostalgia factor is a crowd puller
• Emraan tries his best

Cons:

• The detailing is way off
• The one-sided portrayal of events is stupid and alienating
• The music is a letdown
• The disclaimer at the beginning lowers expectations

Rating: (Entertaining film, but those expecting a unbiased or even a close-to-real film on Azhar will be disappointed)