AZZHU BHAI.. WE LOVE YOU ..
My personal conviction is that, movies ought not to be watched basing on the reviews. One can follow and read reviews, but why discard or watch movies depending only on the reviews. Everyone wants to see few movies for different reasons . They have to be watched for those reasons only. For instance, fans watch for their hero's and technicians watch for the values and common men watch for the sheer entertainment and escapism from the real world to unwind. So why go with reviews and decide to watch or not see?
I was keen to watch the movie AZHAR with my mom and brothers as we all had great liking for him because he was my brother Ratan's class mate and Ratan would talk about the simplicity of Azharuddin and how only his talent would speak as he was a shy guy . Azharuddin represents the guy of the times in Hyderabad where the brotherhood of communities was still high and greatly respected . Hence all of us in India then and Hyderabad particularly had this notion that he cannot make mistakes of any kind including on cricketing grounds. We had this image of a cleanest guy who can and should play good cricket only . This I think was very unfair, as if he cannot change .
Now look at the times when azharuddin made the debut in 1984.. The overall value systems was so very different. Those were the days when, if some controversy erupted, the first reaction was that of disbelief and people would get shocked .. This value would make people be more involved into it to falsify and try and hence understand with prejudice and get into the depth of the truth . In the current situation, Even before the news breaks out vaguely, people jump into conclusion and make it viral .. There is no time to breath for the person affected . All this is thanks to FB, twitter, whatsapp . Azharuddin was the victim of the shock and disbelief of those times when society was too moralistic . Essentially those 2 values made people get hurt very easily and write him off . Today even rapists walk scot free and its so frustratingly sad. Then why pick on Azhar ? Did that serve any purpose ? 10 years later , scandal again broke out and this the big guns were spared for the reasons best known
How can a traditional muslim guy , who is god fearing and who took country by storm just by sheer excellence make such a blunder? how can he take country for a ransom ? These were the most unreasonable questions that would throw as an argument . Honestly I was one of them, getting hurt about a guy whom we loved and idolized . We let off everyone else in other fields who did worse to the country . We picked on azhar as he was by nature innocent and he cannot be flamboyant . The most ridiculous argument was , how can this guy wear expensive watches and lead rich life style. This intolerance made people judge him and judge him wrong . He was not given a chance to talk, to prove and he is a victim of times . The result is , that he was denied opportunity to play for the country after that and that's very sad .
Now coming to the movie, most people felt the reality should have been shown .. What is the reality ? did they expect Azhar to be shown as a tyrant or Desh Drohi ? and make him take all the blame for the most corrupt cricket body ? How does one approach this movie ? I think, the basic approach though not very spicy for the breaking news fed audiences , is actually very good.. Movie opens with a cricketer accused and banned . The case is in the court .. From there its told beautifully without engaging in the masala tale or going fictional about his personal life before cricket as there isn't any at any story about him worth, all expect his passion for cricket . The movie is journey from accused to acquittal . The lonely war that he waged to earn back the consolatory reputation .
Azharuddin is shown not only as a passionate cricketer but as a compassionate human . They show how his love and relationship develops helplessly with the film actress , as he empathizes with her pain . what I loved most about the movie is the respect with which both his women in life were depicted. This I am sure azhar would have had exactly for his women in real life too . I felt Imran Hashmi was not that apt but the only other option would have been Nawaz Siddiqui . Casting of other cricketers were bad and nargis is disappointing as sangeeta .
I liked the balance in the movie , in the way cricketers were handled though there must always have been a temptation to actually show so called truth about most of them . Manoj Prabhakar ( looked like ) was shown in the negative shades and so is Ravi shastry ( possibly ) in different mode . It was very special to watch the movie with my mom and sister . We had tears in the eyes at the end as azhar did confess in the movie about one mistake ( though he had a justification which was only cinematic ) and subsequently refused bookies for the love of country and led india to victory . He could have been mum and his loyalty to the game and country made him reject bookies and few heart burnt exposed him. Azharuddin did make a mistake but did not commit blunder. Who knows who else did what and he was targeted .. Don't we know the current situations and recent past incidents ?
I always wonder if Harsha Bhogle has seen this movie and if he has seen why didn't do the review ? diplomacy thy name of success and hence his biography on azhar is also vanilla kinds ? let it be .. Dear Azhar ,like me and my family ,there are millions who love you and we see you were a human too .. Great attempt to make a difficult movie . Watch and then get eligibility to discard or criticize movie and azhar . until then please ..........
