Wazir

About the film

Wazir (transl. Vizier) is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir action thriller film directed by Bejoy Nambiar and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Written and edited by Abhijat Joshi and Chopra, the film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar alongside Aditi Rao Hydari, Manav Kaul and Neil Nitin Mukesh (as the title character). John Abraham makes a special appearance. The film's dialogues and additional dialogues were written by Abhijeet Deshpande and Gazal Dhaliwal, respectively. The music was composed by Shantanu Moitra, Ankit Tiwari, Advaita, Prashant Pillai, Rochak Kohli and Gaurav Godkhindi, with the background score composed by Rohit Kulkarni. Sanu Varghese served as the film's cinematographer.

Based on an original story by Chopra, Wazir follows the story of a suspended Anti-Terrorism Squad officer who befriends a chess player who is a wheelchair user. The idea of the film came to Chopra in the 1990s and he started writing it in English with Joshi over a period of four years starting in 2000. It was supposed to be Chopra's first Hollywood film, with Dustin Hoffman playing the protagonist. However, its producer died and the film was shelved for nearly eight years. Chopra and Joshi later re-wrote the script so it could be produced as a Hindi film. Principal photography began on 28 September 2014.

Plot

Danish Ali, an Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer, lives with his wife Ruhana and their young daughter Noorie. While pursuing terrorist Farooq Rameez, Danish becomes involved in a shootout during which Noorie is killed and Rameez escapes. Traumatised by the incident, Ruhana blames Danish for their daughter’s death. When Danish later kills Rameez in a police operation—despite orders to capture him alive—he is suspended from duty.

Grieving and contemplating suicide at Noorie’s grave, Danish encounters Pandit Omkar Nath Dhar, a disabled chess master who had been Noorie’s teacher. Pandit befriends Danish and tells him that his own daughter, Nina, died after falling down the stairs at the residence of government minister Yazaad Qureshi, whose daughter Ruhi Nina had been tutoring. Convinced that Nina was murdered, Pandit urges Danish to investigate, but the authorities close the case and Pandit is threatened by a mysterious hitman called Wazir.

When Pandit is apparently killed in an explosion orchestrated by Wazir, Danish travels to Kashmir to confront Qureshi. With the help of Superintendent Vijay Malik, he disrupts Qureshi’s public appearance and tracks him down. Ruhi reveals that Qureshi is not her real father but a militant who massacred her village and assumed her guardian’s identity. Nina had discovered the truth and was murdered by Qureshi. Danish kills Qureshi, after which the authorities expose him as a terrorist.

Production

The idea of Wazir came to Vidhu Vinod Chopra after badminton player Syed Modi was murdered on 28 July 1988 in Lucknow. However, Chopra has said that the film is completely different from the incident. When Chopra met his eventual co-writer Abhijat Joshi in 1994, he told him about the idea of setting a thriller around two chess players. Chopra described the two characters as "Rakesh Maria and Viswanathan Anand playing chess". The script was later written by them in four years, between 2000 and 2004. It was supposed to be Chopra's first Hollywood film, with Dustin Hoffman playing the protagonist. In 2005, their producer Robert Newmyer suddenly died and the script was shelved.

Chopra saw Bejoy Nambiar's 2013 film, David; he was particularly impressed by the black-and-white portions of it. Chopra subsequently called Nambiar and expressed a desire to work with the director; Chopra had a cache of unfilmed scripts, and Nambiar selected the chess one. Chopra and Joshi then spent two years writing a Hindi version of it.

Both Chopra and Joshi consulted chess experts from America for the film. The cinematography of the film was done by Sanu Varghese, who had previously worked with Nambiar on David. The film's story was tweaked constantly during its seven-month editing period; both writers also served as editors. This was the first time since his 1989 picture Parinda that Chopra had edited a film. Joshi, who edited for the first time on Wazir, believes that "a film is rewritten on the editing table". Visual effects were used to hide Bachchan's legs, to make them look as if they ended below the knees. The makers of the film went through 40 to 50 wheelchairs to find one that would be comfortable for Bachchan over the long shoot. The working titles of the film were Do and Ek Aur Ek Do, and it received its final title, Wazir, in October 2014, based on the character of that name in the film.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack album was composed by Shantanu Moitra, Ankit Tiwari, Advaita, Prashant Pillai, Rochak Kohli and Gaurav Godkhindi. The background score was composed by Rohit Kulkarni while the lyrics were written by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Swanand Kirkire, A. M. Turaz, Manoj Muntashir and Abhijeet Deshpande. The album rights of the film were acquired by T-Series, and it was released on 18 December 2015.

Release

Wazir was initially scheduled to be released in mid-2015, with the first teaser of the film attached with PK (2014). Its scheduled release date was postponed to 2 October and 4 December 2015, but it was ultimately released in India and worldwide on 8 January 2016. The film was given a "UA" certificate with no cuts by the Central Board of Film Certification. The first poster of the film was released on 15 November 2015 via Bachchan's and Akhtar's Twitter accounts, each unveiling the other's look from the film. The official trailer of the film was released on 18 November. Chopra showed the complete film to as many as 70 Indian film programmers and distributors.

Key details