Azhar movie review

I was wondering after watching the film Azhar and relating it to the disclaimer that was displayed at the beginning. Not a biopic says the disclaimer and it goes further mentioning that the film is loosely based on personal and on field plus off the field incidents picked up from Mohammed Azharuddin's life. Contradicting things with Azhar himself promoting the film that has used every first name of cricketers that were in the limelight during the playing days of Azhar.
Well, Azhar the film fails to live up to its name as a result of poor screenplay. The makers seems to be a confused lot. They should have gone with showing actual facts of Azhar but instead they adopted a mix strategy wherein the film has the presence of actual facts and at the same time the interpretations of the writers which pushed the film backwards.
The story is nothing new as we see how a boy from the interiors of Hyderabad who always dreamed of playing 100 tests for the country went on to become one of the most successful Indian Captain of all times. Motivated by his grandfather, Azhar the film has also his personal life touched leading up to the famous match fixing controversy.
Happenings and chit chats inside the players dressing room, something that the public is unaware of is thrown open. Kapil giving a pep talk for motivating young Azhar after Manoj and Ravi not listening to the new captain was an interesting scene. Same way, the way in which the bookies target each player during the match ignoring players like Sachin, Rahul and Saurav was also a lighter moment.
Poor writing, bad dialogues and not doing proper research on the life of one of the most celebrated and controversial Captain of India led to the film's downfall making Azhar a mediocre film on all counts. I would say Tony D'Szousa the director has faltered in his mission. Showing incorrect matches where the booking issue broke out only made things look too silly.
Emraan Hashmi presents himself well with his looks and mannerisms that we have seen in Mohammed Azharuddin. Seems the actor has done some research keenly observing the videos of Azhar to make it look natural. On the acting side, one could clearly see the Emraan Hashmi that we are familiar with. So its a mixed bag of acting performance from the actor.
Peachi Desai as Azharuddin's first wife Naureen looked beautiful and was okay but the other heroine Nargis Fakhri whose character is based on actress and model Sangeetha Bijlani was disappointing.
Kunal Roy Kapur as Azhar's friend and lawyer among the supporting actors was able to do justice to his casting. Same goes for Rajesh Sharma as the bookie. The court drama that occupy a major chunk of the film to be honest was plain boring and the blame is to be put on the dialogues and to some extent the way how the lawyer on the opposite side acted. The actress is none other than Lara Dutta.
Technically too the film is weak with poorly orchestrated cricket matches. Cinematography is just about okay while editing had its share of trouble. Music was good though.
To conclude, Azhar the film is something that should have been told in a much better and bigger canvas. Compromising on the real things and giving more importance for cliched filmy things , this is one film that you can miss without much trouble saving some time and some money in the process. The rating is two out of five.
Rating - 2 / 5