A Thursday is clearly meant to be a spiritual successor to the cult hit Naseeruddin Shah-starrer A Wednesday. Both are about a vigilante protagonist going up against the police, driven by societal injustice. This movie, however, is a lot more audacious, and although it starts well, it starts to go off the rails by the time you realize what the protagonist, Naina’s (Yami Gautam Dhar) agenda really is.
Naina, a playschool teacher who teaches sixteen children at her home, which has been partially converted into a school, takes her students hostage one morning and makes demands to the police. Once officers Cathy (Neha Dhupia) and Javed Khan (Atul Kulkarni) arrive on the scene, commandos try to storm inside but it backfires.
As Naina quickly releases her demands and ultimatums to the general public through social media, the police try to find out why she’s doing this. Does this have something to do with her father, who passed away fifteen years ago, which is when Naina started taking antidepressants? Or is it something else?
The biggest plus of this movie is undoubtedly Yami Gautam Dhar, who turns in her career-best performance. She’s arresting and, at times, even menacing as Naina.
In retrospect, it’s strange that director Behzad Khambata has her play her role as a horror villain at first, but it does make for a very gripping first thirty minutes or so. Atul Kulkarni flies off the handle a bit too often as the hard-boiled Javed Khan, but he makes for a decent opposite against Yami Gautam. Dimple Kapadia also turns in a competent turn as the resolute Prime Minister who’s trying to strike a balance between political expediency and trying to save the children’s lives.
Also, the tense atmosphere holds throughout the movie’s runtime, it starts to come apart around the one-hour mark when it becomes a bit incredulous that an untrained woman is managing to outsmart both the police and the government without really pulling off ingenious gambits. Naina seems to have the upper hand at all times, unlike the cat-and-mouse game we saw in A Wednesday.
Also, the points it makes about the news media industry and a certain social issue feel overwrought and made against strawmen. News anchors, in particular, are portrayed as immoral, sermonizing hacks. However, for plot purposes, they can’t figure out Naina’s background before the police finally find her mother last in the second act.
Still, A Thursday is gripping enough to warrant a one-time watch. The emotional ending, complete with a twist that puts into perspective why exactly Naina has chosen to do this after all these years, may not work for everyone, and its message may be polarizing for those who are against the death penalty. It’s one of the better streaming-exclusive Bollywood movies to come out in recent times, and Yami Gautam Dhar does an admirable job as an engrossing lead.
