A Wednesday - the arrival of the common man

Is anybody taking the common man seriously? R. K. Laxman’s common man in Times of India is merely a mute spectator to everything that happens around him. Perhaps he is wise as he knows that talking may not help much in easing uneasy situations.
But the common man in the film A Wednesday is not dumb. In fact, throughout the film he talks the most, and rightly so; because his only desire is that he be taken seriously. For long he has been kicked around like a soda can on the streets. No more! Now he has risen, with vengeance. So what if his means are unethical and too technical? His ultimate aim is quite clear, at least to him. And for that he is ready to take a risk. His worth is acknowledged at the end by the web hacker who accepts that this common man is ‘the best’.
A Wednesday raises many questions. Does not the common man have any other means to make his presence felt than hold the entire city to ransom? Does he require ‘blackmailing’ as his weapon to announce his arrival? Does he think he can thus clean up the mess around him? When Inspector Rathod tells him on his face that he is a coward, afraid to come in the open and fight, the common man has no issues. He quite plainly accepts that he is afraid. But more afraid is he to go to market, catch a suburban train; for he thinks he is not safe anymore. He does not know when the next bomb will go off. He is made to be resilient, not by choice but by force.
Is the common man taken seriously, at least in the film? For a while, yes. There is no other choice. One cannot take risk with situations where lives of thousands of people are involved. So he is taken seriously, not as a common man, but as a supposed terrorist. But whether he succeeds in representing all common people is a further intriguing question.
A Wednesday indeed is a good film with a simple but effective plot. Neeraj Pandey has done a commendable job; so have the actors, especially Naseeruddin Shah as the common man and Anupam Kher as the Inspector. The main plus point of the film is that it makes the audience think. The hapless common man among the audience who has witnessed the mindless terror attacks in the bylanes and subways will surely identify himself with the common man in the film. It will further give him a cathartic effect. For a while, the common man in the audience might as well think that the path chosen by the common man in the film to tackle terrorism could as well work, what with technology coming handy. But whether technology can be a solution for all evil in the world and whether an ordinary common man has the access to such sophisticated, almost out-of-reach, technology is even more difficult question.
One thing, though, is certain. The film makes a bold statement from the perspective of simple ordinary people – do not take us for a ride; take us seriously. Give us a sense of security which is what we are asking for, not your empty promises.