Emraan Hashmi starrer Azhar reminded Indians of match-fixing in the ’90s as the movie opened to half-empty halls and lukewarm response on a balmy Friday the 13th, the date inauspicious in Western superstitions.
The movie has its sparks but very few. I liked one, the opening shot when Karanvir Sharma( who essayed the role of former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar) asks a journalist to conduct a sting on Azharuddin. The backroom crap continues till date, I witnessed how the gang of South and West happily dug all dirt about Jagmohan Dalmiya when he was out of favour, out of posts in the BCCI. And eventually, all cases against the veteran administrator was dropped as if there was no tomorrow.
I was impressed with the courtroom scenes where two seasoned actors, Lara Dutta and Kunaal Roy Kapur argued vociferously against each other in Azharuddin’s match-fixing case. Dutta wanted him jailed, Kapur appeared sanguine Azharuddin had no option but to take that slice of illegal cash. Let’s not forget there exists a widespread theory that the cricketer was honey-trapped because of his proximity to a number of Bollywood starlets. And that, eventually, pushed him to accept Sangeeta Bijlani( Nargis Fakhri) and drop Naureen, his first wife( Prachi Desai) .
In the cricketer’s life copy, these two women play very little role, except Bijlani opened up the glamorous side of cricket to an otherwise earthy Azharuddin. His demands for Rolex watches, BMW cars and Tuxedo suits increased proportionately to the cash he demanded to fix matches.