Bhai

jab chhaati pe India likha ho to dil nahin bharta," says Mohammad Azharuddin
after scoring a century in his 99th test match and being asked about his retirement
plans. Immediately after that Azhar is struck by a bombshell that he has been
implicated in the match fixing scandal and will be axed out from the Indian cricket
team.

Azhar (Emraan Hashmi) is an introvert who's instilled with only one aim in life by
his grandfather (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and that is to play 100 test matches for his
motherland India. The journey of success is dotted with his marriage to the lovely
Naureen (Prachi Desai). Their angelic love story smeared with lighthearted funny
moments moves like a swift breeze. The life of Indian cricket team captain makes
him cross flower-laden path with the gorgeous actress Sangeeta (Nargis Fakhri)
who was nursing a broken heart. The introvert Ajju becomes the more outgoing,
suave Azhar flashing expensive watches and stylishly lifted collars. The tongues
start wagging, the match fixing scandal takes the country by storm and in his quest
for clearing his name and the ignominious life ban, Azhar decides to take the battle
to the Court where he's represented by his under confident lawyer friend Reddy
(Kunal Kapoor) while the prosecution lawyer is the fiery Meera (Lara Dutta), an
erstwhile diehard Azhar fan.

Director Tony D'souza's AZHAR brilliantly captures the angst, the simplicity, the
colossal success, the dual romance, tryst with infamy and an arduous innings of
never ending struggle-to-clear-the-name of Indian cricket's heroic, yet arguably the
most controversial captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Tony is stoically backed by the
career best performance of Emraan Hashmi and excellent writing of Rajat Arora.

Everyone was wondering as to how would the makers of AZHAR present his highly
scrutinized and well-known public-personal life. The tone and tenor of the film is set
at the beginning itself with the unpredictable screenplay. The story moves forward
in a non-linear fashion making you cringe in disbelief at one moment and unleashing
a hearty laughter at almost the very next. The intensity of writing is sustained right
throughout and Tony D'souza tightly weaves everything together making you clap
and shed tears towards the end of the film. Dialogues (Rajat Arora) are consistently
first rate. Sample these: 'Jab farak nahin padta zindagi mein, farak tabhi aata hai' or
'Iske baad India ko Azhar mil gaya aur Azhar ko India'.