A THURSDAY springs a huge surprise. It’s a film that should have released in cinemas.

A THURSDAY is the story of a woman who takes 16 kids hostage. Naina Jaiswal (Yami Gautam Dhar) is engaged to Rohit Mirchandani (Karanvir Sharma) and stays in his sprawling house. A part of his residence has been converted into a playschool, which is run by Naina. She falls sick and resumes the playschool three weeks later, on a rainy Thursday . After the parents drop the kids off and leave, the maid, Savitri (Kalyanee Mulay) asks Naina for a holiday the next day as she has to go to the Aadhaar card centre for updating her details. Naina insists that she get her work done on the same day. After Savitri leaves and Naina is all alone with the kids, she calls the Colaba Police Station and informs them that she has taken 16 kids hostage. Her demand is to talk to a reputed cop, Javed Khan (Atul Kulkarni) . After she ends a call, she gets a visitor, a driver (Boloram Das) of one of the children, who has come to deliver a parcel. She lets him inside. The driver notices that she has a gun. He gets scared and tries to raise an alarm. She ties him up. As luck would have it, Savitri returns as she had forgotten her cell phone. She too gets tied up. Meanwhile, a pregnant cop, Catherine Alvarez (Neha Dhupia) arrives at the scene. Naina fires at her and this is when the cops realise that the matter is serious. Javed is Javed calls Naina and she says that she wants Rs. 5 crores. She assures that after her demand is met, she’ll release one kid, and would inform about the rest of the demands later. After her demand is fulfilled and after a child is allowed to leave, Naina puts forward her next demand – to talk to the Prime Minister of India, Maya Rajguru (Dimple Kapadia). What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Ashley Michael Lobo and Behzad Kambata’s story is quite engaging and relatable. It is also in the same zone as A WEDNESDAY (2008). Ashley Michael Lobo and Behzad Kambata’s screenplay is very gripping and thrilling. The writers are in firm control of their material and have peppered the narrative with a lot of thrilling and unpredictable moments. Vijay Maurya’s dialogues are hard hitting. A few of the sarcastic dialogues of Atul Kulkarni raise laughs.

Behzad Kambata’s direction is superior. The director’s last film BLANK [2019] was decent but A THURSDAY shows that he has improved considerably. The nearly two-hour long film has no song and dance or lighter moments. The focus is just on the story and the main characters. And Behzad manages to grip the viewers from start to finish. What’s commendable is that the finale is hard-hitting and clapworthy and to a great extent does justice to the legacy and impact of the predecessor (of sorts), A WEDNESDAY. On the flipside, it’s a little unconvincing to see that a person single-handedly was able to take the kids hostage and the cops and the commandos outside stood as mute spectators. The track of the journalist, Shalini Guha (Maya Sarao), is also weak. However, these are minor faults and the twists and turns in the second half compensate for all the shortcomings. The suspense is unpredictable.

A THURSDAY’s beginning makes one feel that it’s a sweet, light-hearted film. But soon, the thrilling background score is played and one realizes that Naina has a sinister plan in her mind. The way she takes the kids hostage without making them feel that they are in such a situation and the way she negotiates with the cops has been done very nicely. The tu-tu-main-main between Catherine and Javed enhances the entertainment quotient. Post-interval, the interrogation of Rohit is gripping. The film stagnates after this sequence. However, the scene where Naina gets attacked while the kids are listening to meditative music in their noise-cancelling headphones once again piques interest. The last 15-20 minutes are terrific.

Yami Gautam Dhar delivers the most accomplished performance of her career. She has always been a fine performer but after this film, she’ll be seen in a different light. Her performance is just right and the way she switches from being menacing to being very sweet is seen to be believed. Atul Kulkarni is highly entertaining and is lovely as the sarcastic and kind-hearted cop. Neha Dhupia had played a similar part in SANAK [2021] but here, her role is fleshed out in a better way. And her performance is also first-rate. Dimple Kapadia is very good and suits the part. Karanvir Sharma is quite good in the supporting role. Maya Sarao is nice but doesn’t get much scope. Kalyanee Mulay and Boloram Das lend able support. Others are fine.

A THURSDAY is a song-less film. Roshan Dalal and Kaizad Gherda’s background score is one of the USPs of the film and contributes to the thrill factor very well. Anuja Rakesh Dhawan and Siddharth Vasani’s cinematography is very good. Madhusudan N’s production design is rich . Ayesha Khanna’s costumes are realistic and non-glamourous, as per the demands of the script. The same goes for Vikram Dahiya’s action. Sumeet Kotian’s editing could have been tighter towards the beginning of the second half but overall, it’s good.

On the whole, A THURSDAY springs a huge surprise. It is laced with a taut script, first-rate execution and the finest performance ever by Yami Gautam Dhar. It’s a film that should have ideally come in cinemas. Had it been released on the big screen, especially in the Women’s Day week, it would have emerged as the sleeper hit of the year, if not the sleeper super-hit. Highly Recommended!

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