A Thursday Movie Review: Yami Gautam Is A Surprise Package In A Film With Lazy Editing & People Advising The PM To Take Audience Polls Seriously

February 16, 2022

328 5 minutes read

A Thursday Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Yami Gautam, Neha Dhupia, Atul Kulkarni, Dimple Kapadia, and ensemble.

Director: Behzad Kambata

A Thursday Movie Review Ft. Yami Gautam(Pic Credit: Movie Still)

What’s Good: Yami Gautam is a surprise so are the birds-eye view shots. Dimple Kapadia creates an impact on her part.

What’s Bad: The writing gets too lazy in parts and the editor needs to apologize to the team for his/her idea to add superzoom every time Yami looked into the camera.

Loo Break: When social media posts flash on Yami’s walls and she walks through a hallway like its Metaverse.

Watch or Not?: There is no concrete reason you should not be watching this one at all. Of course, there are a few lazy bits and that will bother, but the climax will help compensate.

Language: Hindi (with subtitles).

Available on: Disney+ Hotstar.

Runtime: Around 120 Minutes.

User Rating:

One fine day a lady names Naina (Yami) known for her big heart and goodwill kidnaps 16 kids in her playschool and makes direct demands to the government. The nation is alarmed and now everyone is glued to what happens next. She demands to sit across and have a conversation with the Prime Minister Of India and the drama unfolds.

(Pic Credit: Movie Still)

A Thursday Movie Review: Script Analysis

Answering the biggest question first, this isn’t a sequel to Naseeruddin Shah’s cult film A Wednesday. Yes, the blueprint might resemble a bit, but that is with many captive dramas and the catch is how the filmmaker and team try to make it their own. A Thursday is a thriller that has Yami at the helm of it shouldering the entire story.

Written by Ashley Michael Lobo and Behzad Kambata, A Thursday on paper is a powerful story of a woman who is fighting against the system to get justice after living a life as the victim of the system for years. It’s strong, moving, makes you ask questions and keeps you hooked till the end of it.

It isn’t one of those stories where the motive is clear since the very beginning and now we are looking for the culprit. Here everything is a mystery. For that matter, at a point, you are made to think that the kidnapper is just a mentally unstable woman and she is doing this due to her mental condition. Full marks for keeping the mystery intact and not really making it predictable.

There are layers to the narrative too. While Yami’s Nidhi does get a good story to stand on, rest all also have a good arc. The only complaint is that the writers use Neha and Atul Kulkarni’s dynamic lesser than expected. They share a quite interesting dynamic and I would have loved to see more of that.

The best part about the film is the fact that there are consequences to everything. Even if Nidhi had a concert reason and one that explained her madness by the climax, it was still a crime and deserves punishment. Such a good thing to include the consequence.

I seriously can’t talk about the movie without giving spoilers anymore and I won’t. But A Thursday is an earnest attempt at making a movie true to its genre. But there are of course loopholes. The writing unlike the movie it is compared to, doesn’t stay subtle, it takes the overdramatized route.

The movie takes some lazy resorts that end up diluting the entire effect. For example, the Prime Minister is told to obey audience polls run by random news channels by her personal secretary. Even Amitabh Bachchan never took the audience poll so seriously on KBC. Good the PM is Dimple Kapadia and has some emotions that she rejects that suggestion. At least we have a good leader in reel world at least.

(Pic Credit: Movie Still)

A Thursday Movie Review: Star Performance

Yami Gautam is surprising me with her performances back to back. Be it her performance in Bala, or URI and now A Thursday. The script demands a lot from the actor who has the highest screentime. While dealing with kids and carrying out the whole hostage situation, she has to shuffle between expressions and she does it quite effortlessly. She manages to pull off a powerful climax.

Dimple Kapadia plays the Prime Minister. The actor can cakewalk these characters. Here she only gets a limited time and does an impressive job. Though she doesn’t have layers to her, but the attempt to showcase how being a woman is used against her at times even on the highest position of power is good.

Neha Dhupia deserves an award for just pulling off her part while she was actually expecting. She plays the cop best to her abilities. Atul Kulkarni enters the show and helps her rather than overshadowing. The actor gets a very pivotal part, but doesn’t have much to do till the climax that involves him at a high extent.

(Pic Credit: Movie Still)

A Thursday Movie Review: Direction, Music

Behzad Kambata’s direction shouts drama at the top of its voice. While he does manage to create tension and thrill, he also dilutes it with his usage of social media creatives and caricaturist perspective of the media. Not saying they don’t behave like that in such situations, but if you make that a huge part of your film, you are adding giggles where they aren’t needed.

Also, if it was the editor or the director who decided the camera should superzoom everytime Yami says something powerful and looks in the camera, they should defined rethink their life choice and rectify it next time. Having said that, drone shots of high shots of the entire situation do look good. All the cars incoming, umbrellas covering the spot, does create an impact.