Azhar: Azhar plays it safe

The movie is tame but it does make you want to rethink about the life of the cricketer, writes Deepa Gauri

If you are the sort who gets goose pimples when you see Team India hit boundaries, Azhar might work for you - as a cricket movie - but yet it's not enough to leave you in awe.
For curious fans looking to gain an insight into the world of former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin, the man who mesmerised millions of followers of the game with his famous wrist flicks before falling from grace, Azhar offers little of worth.
It is too Bollywoodish for its own good, which is why characters appear plastic, inconsistent, black or white. Even the grey zones of the protagonist become reduced to simplistic exonerations.
If Azhar, the movie, is to be believed, we should have no reason ever to have been unkind to Azharuddin. After all, he did the Indian team a great favour by 'playing the match fixers'.
But then, cricket perhaps is the only game, where even a court acquittal means nothing; by the time your name is cleared, there would be a new star on the horizon to fill in the void. Azharuddin took 12 years before the court cleared him of the charges.
Azharuddin surely went through a sad phase in his life and despite his later year flamboyance, there is something earnestly gullible-like and vulnerable in him. He is not a man who talks a lot - and has always let his cricketing skills speak for him.
That vulnerability is not lost in Emraan Hashmi; he brings that naiveté to the title role. But the inconsistencies and the urge to Bollywood-ise his role (a protracted sequence where he is raving to kiss his wife, being just one of the many silly scenes), take away gravitas from Azhar. It thus becomes more Jannat (heavenly) than what could have been a seminal biopic on one of India's all-time best cricketers.
The film, fittingly enough, centres around the courtroom drama, where Azharuddin is being defended by advocate Reddy (Kunal Roy Kapoor, clumsy and hamming) and the state by Meera (Lara Dutta), a dashing lawyer from the UK. Apart from the stilted setting, the courtroom drama is weakest link in Azhar. It is too simplistic to say the least.
The film thus flits between now and then as we are shown how Azharuddin, the little boy who was encouraged by his grandfather, goes on to become the mighty blaster. We are told of his marriage to Naureen (Prachi Desai, the most effective star in the cast), and his love for upcoming actress Sangeeta (Nargis Fakhri, all she could do best was pout than act).
Despite the laid-back nature, there are some powerful moments in the film - and that is where Emraan wins you over. The moment he realises that nothing matters, he holds his head high and walks through the streets of Hyderabad - It truly is a mesmerising shot. But such gems are far and few in the film.
The movie, however, makes you want to think deeper into the life of Azharuddin - and even believe that he is right in what he does. If only director Tony D'Souza had kept his penchant for Bollywoodish blockbusters aside when making this fictional bio-pic, we would have been cheering from the gallery. Instead, he drops the catch and lets us down.
 
Azhar
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai, Lara Dutta
Directed by Tony D'Souza
Now playing at theatres in the UAE
Rating: 2/5