Azhar

Azhar the Movie, like Azhar the Kaalpanik/ Fictional Character mentioned in a disclaimer (at the beginning of the movie) - both of them lack spine.

This movie is a sad attempt to justify a character who was poor as a husband, as a person and as a father. Quite frankly, and as several of the other reviews on IMDb are mentioning, this is a clear case of propaganda that the actual Azhar is trying to indulge in.

The famous match fixing scandal of the 90s dragged in some big players, both in SA and in India. The legal cases against them were substantiated, and these individuals were subsequently banned from the game for varying periods of time. Are we questioning the calibre of the courts when we try to show these folks, several years later, as upright? Seems kind of 'easy to portray, but difficult to believe'.

Azhar was first and always a cheat. In the game, in his marriage, in his relationships with his children (the famous affair with Jwala Gutta, who was his son's friend), and otherwise. Following the debacle in cricket, he went where most goons go - to politics. No guesses into the affiliation he sought and achieved.

Now coming to the movie. The acting is unconvincing. The plot is poor. Great actors wasted. Dialogues are juvenile, at the best. Melodrama misplaced. The characters are shallow. The direction a guffaw.

As a final statement, I'd like to say that there was no research. This is just the case of a cheat who is trying to show the world he was victimized, when it was actually the reverse. The scenes seem purported from La La Land.

1 star out of 10 is what this deserves.

A poorly made movie which had a good story and a wonderful protagonist. Storytelling is the only thing which stands out. Director and Actors just donot add value to the movie. Characters r not at all worked out.

Now Bollywood made a movie with the mixture of sport and drama. Before seen the movie i read writer got inspired from the Azhar's life so this will be the good movie. But its not like that, the movie is quite simple and the dialogue delivery is not that level. Now a days the standard of Bollywood is so high . Emran Hashmi act Azhar role and he has done great job. In the movie writer tried to show how India board committee slaps a life ban on Azhar. This movie tells the story of Azhar how much he suffered. As i told story is quite simple but writer shown to the society about the Azhar.At least now people knows about Azhar. Media is the great medium to give the knowledge to society. I want to thanks writer,producer who told the story of Azhar by movie.

The movie is not without its flaws though. The attention to detail is quite poor and product placements are too blatant.

But don't let that hold you back. The movie has all the elements of good, clean entertainment. Romance, humor, drama and some urgency make the movie a tight two hours that you won't be bored of.

I don't know whether he did it or not. The movie doesn't argue one way or the other. What it argues is legality of BCCI's verdict. Azhar was the scapegoat of a scandal that had involvement of many on the field and off the field.

Judge him however you want, don't miss the movie

~ MovieRecipe

Azhar lacks spine. It is evident in the long disclaimer preceding the film in which the team seems to be making a claim on cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin's colourful and controversial life as a source material yet maintaining that it is a fictional account. All to escape the legal battles the film could land them in.

Azharuddin (Emraan) is a fascinating character to have built a dispassionate film on. A man, who rose meteorically because of his game, the way he let his bat do all the talking on the field. He fell from favour just as fast because of his covetousness and his alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal that rocked cricket. He is a man of frailties and shortcomings both on the field of cricket and in the arena of love. But instead of exploring the many shades of grey in him, Tony D'Souza attempts to defend and validate him. Such is the bias that the other players — Manoj, Ravi, Navjot (only first names, no surnames mind you) — get the wrong end of the stick.

Manoj is made to come across not just as jealous and vengeful but selfish, playing for himself than the country and crude and unrefined to boot. Ravi is nothing but a rake. As though that wasn't enough you have Kapil tell Azhar It's the good-for-nothing kids who trouble the class monitor the most. Poor Azhar! Such is the eagerness to justify him that D'Souza makes it seem as though the whole bad world is out to get him. From his haughty fan-turned-prosecutor Mira (Lara Dutta) to the condescending owner of the gym that he inaugurates. Why he took the Rs. 2 crore from bookie M.K. Sharma and what he did with the money is portrayed in such a way as to earn him some desperate brownie points. Even his walking away from an ostensibly fine marriage into the arms of actress Sangeeta Bijlani (Nargis) is turned into a soppy inevitability with him righteously mouthing lines like A broken relationships doesn't actually mean an end of it. But what of Naureen (Prachi), the one who was wronged? When it comes to the craft, the film looks too outmoded in the way it has been mounted — the loud background score soaring over everything else and dialoguebaazi in the name of conversations.

The lines, some of them utterly inane and vacuous, reminded me of heavy duty dialogues of Once Upon A Time In Mumbai. In that masala flick they seemed entertaining, here desperately out of place.

Azharuddin's love for his grandfather becomes a way to draw out melodrama; he gets selected in the national team just as granddad breathed his last. And then there is Azhar's father's obsession with his underwear: the mandatory crass comedy track.

In the name of acting you have Emraan being stiff, staring deep into the camera, looking far from his comfortable self. Prachi and Nargis weep buckets when they are not being coy. Nargis does it most inelegantly. If that wasn't all there is also Kunaal Roy Kapur as Azhar's lawyer. As yet another stereotype of the South Indian in Bollywood, he irritates to the hilt. So does the film.