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RSVP and Blue Monkey Films’ A Thursday (UA) is a suspense thriller. Naina Jaiswal (Yami Gautam Dhar) is a much-loved teacher who runs a play school in her own house. After being on leave for some days, she returns just a day before her birthday. Her fiancé, Rohit Mirchandani (Karanvir Sharma), wants to bring in her birthday which Naina shares with one little student.
Before the birthday celebrations can begin, Naina sends out a video message to the parents of her students that she has held them hostage. She telephones the police station and asks to meet police inspector Javed Khan (Atul Kulkarni), failing which she would kill one of the students. Her demands keep on increasing but the helpless police officers don’t know what she is doing all this for. She keeps sending out video messages and keeps talking to the police officers from time to time. Since she has a gun with her, the police and the students’ parents are terrified. And then, she sends out a video showing herself shooting a student dead. What does Naina Jaiswal want?
Ashley Michael Lobo and Behzad Khambata have written an engaging story and screenplay, which keep the audience interest alive from the start till the end. However, the nail-biting moments are few and far between. The impact of the drama could’ve been far greater had there been more life-and-death moments. Neverthleless, there is enough drama to keep the viewers involved. Vijay Maurya’s dialogues are very realistic and go a long way in making the drama appear authentic.
Yami Gautam Dhar does an extremely fine job as Naina Jaiswal. She switches from being a cute and loving teacher to a manic killer in split-seconds, and she does so with such finesse that you can’t but admire her performance. Atul Kulkarni is fantastic as police inspector Javed Khan. He beautifully expresses his anguish and frustration when he is helpless. Neha Dhupia is very good as ACP Catherine Alvarez. Dimple Kapadia leaves a fine mark in a special appearance as Prime Minister Maya Rajguru. Karanvir Sharma stands his own with a natural performance as Naina’s fiancé, Rohit. Maya Sarao is first-rate as news anchor Shalini Guha. Kalyanee Mulay lends able support as Savitri. Boloram Das is effective as Charan Kumar (alias Govekar). Sukesh Anand (as Lokhande), Adi Irani (as the police commissioner), Shubhangi Latkar (as Naina’s mother), Micky Makhija (as Rohit’s father), Azim Naqvi (as the PNBC news anchor), Akram Aziz (as Rakesh Mathur), Mazel Puri Vyas (as young Naina), Divjyot Kaur, Sanjiv Jotangia, Sulagna Chatterjee, Bhavin Hirani, Asim Sharma, Shailendra Gaur, Raj Kumar Sharma, kids Zidane Braz, Yug Pandya, Hardika Sharma, Kaizan Khambatta, Dia Jain, Keva Vishal Gala, Aria Sakaria, Trisha Bisht, Aishleen Ratan, Kavya Shivhare, Saransh Jaisinghani, Hansika Masani, Abeer Jain and Ahaan Saboo, Kunal Parawani, Mamta Solanki, Shruti Pandey, Aakanksha Kadre, Rita Kaul, Digvijay Savant, Jehangir Karkaria, Anuja Wahle, Kalpana Rao, Nimesh Balaji Shinde and the others lend good support.
Behzad Khambata’s direction is effective. His narrative style keeps the audience involved in the guessing game, making them participative rather than just onlookers. Roshin Dalal and Kaizad Gherda’s music is fairly nice. Anuj Rakesh Dhawan and Siddharth Vasani’s cinematography is of a good standard. Vikram Dahiya’s action and stunt scenes are quite thrilling. Madhusudan N.’s production designing and Mehak Kaur Sodhi’s art direction are appropriate. Sumeet Kotian’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, A Thursday is a fair entertainer. The decision of the producers to premiere the film on an OTT platform is a wise one as its success in cinemas may not have been easy because the film does not have the usual dose of romance, entertaining songs, family drama, etc.
Released on 17-2-’22 on Disney+ Hotstar.