Azhar Movie Review: A Big Let Down For All The Cricket Fans Out There!

Emraan Hashmi's last outing on silver screen was with Vidya Balan i.e., Hamari Adhuri Kahani and sadly, the film failed to create its magic on screen. Now, Hashmi is back with one of the most awaited films of 2016, Azhar, which is a biopic of the controversial cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin!

For the first time ever in his career, Emraan will be seen portraying a real life character on screen. So let's see, whether he gets thumbs up for his portrayal or not, and what exactly this Tony D'Souza directorial has in store for all of us...

Click On View Photos To See 'On The Sets' Pictures Of Azhar:

Director: Tony D'Souza

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai, Nargis Fakhri, Gautam Gulati, Kunaal Roy Kapur,

Azhar Plot:

The story starts with a warning disclaimer that it is NOT a biopic of Mohammad Azharuddin! The good side of this disclaimer: audiences can expect something exciting from the film. While, the bad side is it is a big disappointment for all the cricket fans out there, who rushed to the theatres to watch his biopic!

Now let's come to the plot of the film! The movie starts back in the year 2000, where India is playing against South Africa and Azhar's (Emraan Hasmi) mind blowing batting leads to India winning the match.

Then the camera pans to the present, where Azhar is in trouble and depressed as his name gets embroiled in the match fixing scandal. The entire nation including his colleagues and friends have broken their relationship with Azhar and just for the sake of his Naanu's upbringing, Azhar decides to fight his case in the court!

Azhar meets his old friend Reddy, who happens to be a lawyer and for the sake of their old friendship, the duo gets together to fight Azhar's case! While a top class lawyer Meera (Lara Dutta), who was once Azhar's biggest fan, fights opposite Azhar!

Meanwhile, Azhar tells each and every detail to Reddy, from his personal and professional life. And the movie again goes into the flashback; it shows how Azhar met his first wife Naureen (Prachi Desai) and how the popular actress Sangeeta Bijlani (Nargis Fakhri) entered in to his life.

How Azhar fights his case and who is actually guilty in this whole scandal forms the storyline!

Performances:

There isn't any denying that Emraan Hashmi has tried to give his 100 percent in this film and he succeeded too, not as Azhar but as Emraan! Yes, while watching the film, we hardly felt that Emraan resembles Azharuddin except for the fake moustache.

As far as, Nargis & Prachi are concerned, Prachi has not tried anything new and that's why she shines in the character of Naureen. Whereas, Nargis's 'damsel in distress' kind of character failed to create any magic on the screen!

Lara & Kunal as the lawyers have done a bit of overacting but overall they have delivered a decent performance.

The other side characters that include Gautam Gulati, Varun Badola, Manjot Singh has very less screen space and that's why it would be inappropriate to judge their performances!

Technicalities:

Coming to the direction of the film, we have a long list of complaints to the director Tony D'Souza! With such an explosive content in his hand, how could he end up making such a clichéd typical masala type movie? We wouldn't be wrong if we say that it's a crime to end up making such a lame movie on one of the most popular cricketers!

The editing of the film is yet another let down, which at one point can make you feel irritated to the core! (Especially in the climax of the film.)

Songs in the movie are also very average and doesn't fit well to the storyline of the film! We also feel that the make-up artists have not done their job properly; the actresses looked really weird in some frames!

Verdict:

Staying true to the disclaimer, Azhar is definitely not a biopic! Less game and more masala, a big let down for all the cricket fans out there!