'Madaari' trailer: Irrfan Khan will remind you of Naseeruddin Shah in 'A Wednesday'

Watching the trailer of Madaari — the Nishikant Kamat film starring Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill — one is reminded of Neeraj Pandey’s 2008 film, A Wednesday. In A Wednesday, a common man who feels wronged by the system and wants to give the establishment a well-deserved nudge, takes the law into his own hands. [caption id=“attachment_2777748” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Irrfan Khan plays aam aadmi-turned-vigilante in Madaari. Screen grab from YouTube[/caption] The similarities are compounded by the fact that in A Wednesday too, Shergill played the cop on the trail of the aam aadmi-turned-vigilante. But the methods in which Irrfan Khan’s common man chooses to wreak havoc (in Madaari) are different from those that Naseeruddin Shah’s character in A Wednesday employed. [caption id=“attachment_2777752” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Jimmy Shergill plays tough cop, yet again. Screen grab from YouTube[/caption] The Madaari trailer lays out the film’s basic premise — Irrfan Khan is living the life of the regular man on the street, perfectly content in his world, until his little son is lost. Reports about the film have said that it is based on a real life event, when an under-construction bridge near the Andheri metro station in Mumbai collapsed in 2012 — so while it isn’t explicitly shown in the trailer, it is fair to assume that Irrfan’s son is a casualty of this event. [caption id=“attachment_2777754” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Irrfan’s character kidnaps the home minister’s son to send a message to the authorities. Screen grab from YouTube[/caption] Disconsolate, Irrfan is looking for a way to avenge his son, and he does this by kidnapping the son of the home minister (under whose watch the incident presumably occurred). This action sets the stage for said home minister to issue frantic instructions about recovering his son, for Shergill the cop to start a manhunt, and for Irrfan to deliver monologues about how politicians have been perpetrating grave injustices on the Indian electorate for years (again, a throwback to A Wednesday). [caption id=“attachment_2777756” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Irrfan’s character will remind you of Naseeruddin Shah’s in A Wednesday. Screen grab from YouTube[/caption] Kamat’s previous film, Rocky Handsome, didn’t really set cash registers at the box office ringing, so he needs Madaari to work. A Wednesday did pretty well for itself — perhaps Madaari will too. Watch the trailer for Madaari here: