‘Azhar’ opens with a lengthy disclaimer: It is not at all a biopic of disgraced cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin and is just a fictionalized dramatization for the purposes of pure entertainment.
As disclaimers go, this one has to be said the most inaccurate in recent memory – and of course one of the most imaginative aspects about the much-anticipated biopic. There is no doubt over the identity of the character enacted by Emraan Hashmi – a gifted batsman with magical wrists who is known as Mohammed Azharuddin, hails from Hyderabad, captain of the Indian cricket team, leaves his wife Naureen for Bollywood actress Sangita Bijlani, and ultimately becomes an outcast after being banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the International Cricket Council due to match-fixing allegations.
Written by Rajat Aroraa and directed by Tony D’Souza, Azhar looks to be anything but a biopic. However a 131-minute film which travels through the cricketer’s childhood, his early achievements, dramatic tenure as the Indian captain, the romantic dalliance to grab headlines, and the scandal that taints him for life, not to be called anything but that.
The complete refusal to face its actual identity is to be frank the least of this movie’s problems. Azhar is a wasted opportunity to depict a shady portrait of one of Indian cricket’s most charismatic figures. At times, the movie seems too busy to dodge potential lawsuits, but they may pile up regardless, in spite of addressing a lot of characters just by their first names (“Manoj”, “Kapil”, “Javed”).
The flimsy attempt to prevent lawyers from lining their accounts is not likely to impress anybody. For example, Ravish (Gautam Gulati), who it is safe to assume is Ravi Shastri¸ would not be pleased with the suggestion that he was enjoying with another woman during an England tour while his wife running around the hotel corridors.
The so-called biopic opens with Manoj, presumably Manoj Prabhakar, masterminding the infamous sting operation in 2000 where Azharuddin’s several team-mates seemingly indict him for match-fixing. The cricketer was then banned just one match short of 100 Tests. As the sensational script later reveals, Azharuddin’s 100th test happens to be in the courtroom, where his shambolic lawyer Reddy (Kunaal Roy Kapur) tries to defend him from a prosecutor with a chic wig (Lara Dutta).
The heavily partisan aspect of the movie keeps going back to the past with exaggerated jump cuts, including the early happy years with the Naureen (Prachi Desai), the fateful meetings with bookie MK Sharma (Rajesh Sharma) and the generous-lipped Sangita (Nargis Fakhri), and the humiliation thrown towards a man who constantly tries to prove his innocence.
Although the movie’s only purpose probably to be the rehabilitation of Azharuddin, neither the script writer nor the director is able to build a convincing enough scenario to portray that he is a victim rather than an opportunist.
Significant chances for character development are thoroughly missed, such as the Sangita Bijlani chapter. The dramatic transformation of the famously tongue-tied cricketer and family man into the future husband of Salman Khan’s ex would have been an interestingly rich fodder, but the filmmakers are too much interested in giving a halo and wings on Azharuddin to rectify the lapse.
The cricketing scenes are just like a token prize for the cricket lovers who wanted to see Azhar as a cricketer. The production tacky and the abundance of bad hairdos is a bit disturbing, but Imran Hashmi somehow takes the initiative to hold the film together with his brilliant acting. He usually appears dead-eyed in most of his movies and let his lips do the talking, but thank God at least in Azhar, He is paying some attention finally. You don’t find him look like the cricketer one bit and not been able to manage to replicate his hurried mumble, but frankly speaking for the first time in years Imran Hashmi is watchable.
In Jannat (2008), the Bollywood hero played the role of a match-fixer and bookie, which exactly suited his louche charm. However, in Azhar, you can see him at the other end of the transaction, and he worked really hard to make sure his own rehabilitation as an actor.
In the end, despite the movie not been able to scrub the taint off Azharuddin, it goes a long way to prove that Imran Hashmi still can surprise you with a few googlies.