Review : A Thursday’s thrill quotient makes it an interesting watch!
In recent times Indian cinema, including Hindi movies, is giving utmost important to the script. The content and story plays a dominant part in today’s Bollywood movies. The changing taste of audience has compelled this and it’s a good sign that a lot of women centric movies are being made. ‘#AThursday’ is such movie which is entirely shouldered by #YamiGautam. Of course #NehaDhupia, #DimpleKapadia and #AtulKulkarni have done splendid job to support her to make the movie enjoyable. It touches upon a relevant issue that will resonate with women across the globe. India is a country where one rape takes place every hour. The film focuses on atrocities meted out to women in our country and the thrill quotient in it makes it an interesting watch.
Naina Jaiswal (Yami Gautam) is a nursery school teacher who returns from a three week leave. In fact she resumes her duty a week in advance to the surprise of everyone at the school. She wants to celebrate one of the students birthday the same day which coincides with her own birthday. The 16 tiny tots in the school are very attached to their Naina teacher and are happy to see her back. She orders cake which is delivered by one of the student’s drivers and she invites him inside the school. The fact of the matter is that she has kept all the students as hostages and calls up local police station informing the same. Her first demand of Rs 5 crores is immediately met by inspector Javed Khan (Atul Kulkarni) and his senior AC Catharine Alvares (Neha Dhupia). Naina’s demand keep increasing and finally she demands to meet the Prime Minister of India Maya Rajguru (Dimple Kapadia). Naina’s day long stand-off with the authorities forms the story.
The title A Thursday reminds one of a film directed by Neeraj Pandey, A Wednesday. Though the latter was taut and terrific, A Thursday, despite holding audiences attention with it’s hostage drama, is not in A Wednesday’s league. But the director Behzad Khambata has infused suspenseful hostage drama in it and has an interesting premise. Some of the situations are far fetched but the film has good intent so it could be ignored. The menacing issue of rape and capital punishment for the guilty is sensitively conveyed through the film. The movie also focuses on police department giving importance to the politicians’ demands rather than giving an ear to the common people’s woes. Also it reveals the functioning of news channels, journalism and the reality behind some of the ‘breaking news’. The background score is a bit jarring at times but otherwise suits the situations projected on screen. The police department’s set ups at the crime scene does remind of hostage dramas in western movies and web series. The delightful cinematography enhances the atmospheric experience.
Yami Gautam excels as Naina and the contrasting behaviour of her character is fine tuned by her. It may be a surprise factor for many but she has shouldered the film ably. Atul Kulkarni is outstanding and his ‘working’ is commendable. Neha Dhupia has played a pregnant cop and she was pregnant in real life when she shot for this film. She is good in her role and Dimple Kapadia too is convincing as PM.
A Thursday has been released on an OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar and is an interesting watch.
Rating : ***1/2