The much-awaited film of the year, ‘Azhar’, starring Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai and Nargis Fakhri has finally released today! ‘Azhar’ is the first biopic of Bollywood that is based on a cricketer; the life of former Indian cricket skipper Mohammad Azharuddin and is one of its kind. The part that is interesting about the film is the idea of the film! India is country with numerous cricket lovers, and with ‘Azhar’, audience can get to know the reality behind the scandal of Azharuddin. Something that should not be missed is the point that the film ultimately belongs to Emraan Hashmi. It is his sincere performance that makes us invest in the film. Even though he doesn’t look anything like the real Azhar, he makes sure he adopts a few mannerisms of the former cricket star, but not to the extent of mimicking him.We must say that Emraan Hashmi can do much more just than the intimate scenes! All in all, we can say that Emraan is harmless in white, and puts his collar up in true Azhar style! Though he fails a bit to capture the true persona of Azharuddin, but he still makes the proceedings of the film believable! As the tagline of the movie suggest, love him, hate him, judge him...we can say you are surely going to love him!
You stay invested here because the material at hand combines India's two religions-cricket and films. Of course, this generation would rather see biopics on MS Dhoni or Virat Kohli. But, to give the devil his due, Azhar was an idol in the 80-90s. The film traces the rise of a prodigy born into a modest Muslim household in Hyderabad. As early as his 20s, he goes on to become one of the most accomplished Indian batsman and a paisa-vasool fielder. His desire to play a hundred tests remains a pipe dream because he is banned after his 99th nine. Without giving away too much, here one must add that the court-room drama with Reddy (Kunal) defending him and Meera (Lara) against him, is partly banal, partly an eye-opener. Emraan bears no physical resemblance to Azharruddin. However his mannerisms—the blinking of his eyes and swagger add to a knockout performance. Watch Azhar for him.