'A Thursday' Film Review

 'A Thursday' Film Review

There are two things that make a thriller: the element of surprise and its delivery. If either of the two is under-utilised, the movie loses its charm. The Hindi thriller, ‘A Thursday’ that released on Disney Plus Hotstar falls prey to the same. What was believed to be a spiritual sequel to the 2008 Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher starrer ‘A Wednesday’ does not keep the intrigue value as high as its spiritual origin did.

 The Yami Gautam starrer ‘A Thursday’ is a Hindi thriller under the banner of RSVP and Blue Monkey Films directed by Behzad Khambata and produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Premnath Rajgopalan. The movie has been o written by Behzad Khambata and Ashley Lobo and includes Atul Kulkarni, Neha Dhupia, Dimple Kapadia and Karanvir Sharma among other cast members.

 The movie follows the story of Naina, (Yami Gautam) a play school teacher who holds 16 of her students hostage to not only get the Mumbai Police put up with her series of demands but also shackles the national politics by involving the Prime Minister Maya Rajguru (played by Dimple Kapadia) herself. Her back and forth interactions with ACP Catherine Alvarez (Neha Dhupia) and Inspector Javed Khan (Atul Kulkarni) for the want of fulfilling her demands is the core action of the movie. With a runtime of around 120 minutes the movie is interesting in bits but the plot is a little too overdone to sustain an intrigue value for the entire duration.

The movie does not completely lack the elements of surprise but they don’t fall as smoothly to create an effect. The performance has to be duly credited. Yami Gautam as Naina looks motivated, determined, shady and at times intimidating. Atul Kulkarni is tailor made for Inspector Javed Khan. Neha Dhupia showcases ACP Alvarez’s professional jealousy in her vulnerabilities very well. Dimple Kapadia as the PM portrays the human side of the figure and it’s good to watch her.

 With movies where all events take place in one day and most of the movie is shot in one apartment, the frames are likely to get repetitive and boring, however ‘A Thursday’ manages to keep the frames fresh. The post climax rain sequence almost feels poetic and adds to the settling down of the little nerves that spiked during the climax.

All in all, the movie is loosely knit but does raise an important point to discuss and work on. 

Written By,
Mahvish Fatima