Azhar Movie Review
Emraan Hashmi tries really hard to be Azhar, who was once captain of the Indian Cricket team and was considered one of the finest players of his times. He manages to get the gait right and the expressions right (sometimes). That's why the film earns its single star.
The rest is a tad tacky. In your face brand placements (so blatant, they could have named him Macho instead of Azhar and it would have been the same), dialog about the brand (it's an underwear brand for men, and Azhar's dad reminds him to take extra underwear packed for his cricket matches abroad. It's not cute, not is it funny.
Coming to the game, the scenes are so horribly created you know it's not a stadium, it's poorly done CGI. When you watched the TV show Bodyline, everything from the clothes and shoes seemed to belong to the period. This one looks laughable. Even the bookie watching cricket from the donor's box with an underworld kingpin looks fake.
The trouble with this movie is that there is practically no emotional connect with the audience. You don't get angry at the bookie, you don't even care that he stopped loving his wife. It doesn't matter to you if he really cared about his grandpa even though the grandpa was his biggest inspiration. Had the story connected with the audience the filmmakers could have achieved much more. Cricket is religion with people, and Azhar is a fallen hero. An emotional connect could have helped the audience understand his point of view. Although Emraan Hashmi gets a star for effort, the movie scores a duck in believability.
