In a country where you need to bribe and know important people to get a hospital bed, the joke's on you if you expect to get timely justice. It's no surprise then that stories of vigilantism continue to be as popular as ever in our democracy that celebrated its 73rd republic day less than a month ago.
Directed by Behzad Khambata, "A Thursday" opens with Naina Jaiswal, a 30-year-old teacher at a playschool in Mumbai's Colaba, holding 16 children hostage. She intends to cause no harm, only wants her demands to be met.
Matters soon escalate enough to make national breaking news and get the Prime Minister involved. Yami Gautam is a revelation as Naina, delivering her career's best performance yet. Naina is equal parts dangerous and vulnerable, daring and conflicted. As her backstory unfolds, you are made to witness a victim's journey from being a survivor to a warrior.
Gautam is ably supported by Atul Kulkarni and Neha Dhupia, who play cops with differing ideologies, working styles, and a shared past. "A Thursday" is sleek in a way that the recent "Badhaai Do" was not. Despite involving several background characters, it's not crowded. It deals with violence, crime, terror, and trauma but not once does it get gruesome or gory. It cleverly uses the presence of children to counterbalance the darkness and severity of the story it wants to tell.
In the garb of a hostage thriller, this film is a smart commentary on how the four pillars of the Indian democracy—legislature, executive, judiciary, and media—have come undone and fail its nameless, faceless populace in countless ways every day. How, no matter how powerful or high-impact our profession, it gets reduced to a job like any other, and the people we encounter and impact to numbers, headlines, cases, and forgotten stories. It's also a timely critique on how, despite all the hullaballoo, the stigma and myths around mental health abound, even among the educated, woke, and posh metropolitans.
Thematically, stylistically, and spiritually, "A Thursday" shares the same canvas as Ram Madhvani's last thriller Dhamaka (2021), which starred Kartik Aryan as a news anchor desperate to regain lost glory. It's as taut, compelling, and urgent.
However, it's a little too mawkishly sentimental. Especially the role of Prime Minister played by Dimple Kapadia. India has known only one woman PM thus far, and Kapadia's Maya Rajguru is as far removed from her or every person with political power as can be. Rajguru cares enough to sidestep the rules, pick beef with her babus, make promises, and keep them. When she delivers her impassioned speech in the parliament in the climax, it's so good to be true that it feels ludicrous. But, I think, Rajguru is a portrait of not what has been but what should be.
The latest addition to the long list of films on women seeking vigilante justice, "A Thursday's" messaging is deeply polarising. It is a successor to movies like "NH10", "Kahaani", "Mom", "Akira", and "Angry Indian Goddesses".
Whether you find it flawed or fitting depends on your worldview and privilege. However, it does beget several pertinent questions. Why do such films still evoke a deeper sense of catharsis than anger despite endless debates and discussions? Why is this genre still so popular? We know the alternative route, the way to go and be, but how much longer till it starts to yield results? The questions are many. But there are no straight answers.
(Edited by : Amrita Das)
First Published: Feb 17, 2022 6:24 PM IST
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