UPO or "A Wednesday"- Which is better?
By Behindwoods Visitor Karthik
The views expressed in this column is that of the visitor. Behindwoods.com doesn't hold responsible for its content.
By this time, we all know how good a theme “A Wednesday” was. It had amazing screenplay, dialogues, performance and direction. It is said by a few that Unnaipol Oruvan (UPO) is the exact replica of “A Wednesday”. Comparisons have been made by many about which version is better. This post would analyze both the versions and bring out their differences. Some other minute differences have been skipped for brevity sake.

Places where UPO is better than Wednesday:

First Scene: UPO had a more natural feel to it by showing Mohan Lal narrating the experience while he takes his dog to a walk. In the Hindi version, the Commissioner is let off after this incident.

Placing Bags:
In “A Wednesday”, Naseer is shown placing the bags very obviously (in the middle of a staircase and within a police station bypassing two cops in the process). He makes no effort to hide the bags. Also, the rest room is inside the complaint room of the police station.

Cop Sethu dropping wife scene: In “A Wednesday”, the cop Jai drops his wife at the railway station. This scene had no importance at all to the movie and was just shown to introduce Jai. UPO made it a necessary scene by also making Kamal place his bag in the same scene. Thoughtful indeed!

At police station:
Naseer is rude to the police officer within the station. He tells “What do you mean by how do things get lost”. A common man is expected to talk politely to a cop, especially when he is on a mission. Kamal controls his anger with great poise.
Unnaipol Oruvan

Actor part: In “A Wednesday”, the actor walks alone to the Commissioner’s office. He has an unnecessary flashback scene too. The actor reacts poorly when the threatening call comes and he hugs the cop which was uncalled for. Also, commissioner Anupam makes no effort to look at the demands of the actor. UPO corrects these flaws.

Introductory Scene of reporter: This scene is no way related to the movie in the Hindi version. We have reporter talking to a guy who survived an electric shock. All this effort just to introduce her. Kamal conveys three ideas in this scene- the content in the TV program, the basis for selecting the reporter and showing the responsible common man aspect.

Call Testing: Naseer is shown receiving a call from his wife and he answers it before configuring his devices. After talking to his wife, you find that all the things are arranged at Naseer’s end. UPO corrects even these minute flaws.

Government negotiation:
UPO gives more weightage to the Chief Secretary role as a bridge between the CM and commissioner. A CM who works at the grassroots level as shown in “A Wednesday” would also have no problem in being the negotiator, but it doesn’t happen. Having the CM’s voice and showing his house makes it appear more genuine in UPO. Interactions and rift between Chief Secretary & Commissioner are better brought out in UPO.

Other Flaws in “A Wednesday” that have been corrected in UPO

• Commissioner demanding the Chief Secretary to come within 15 minutes

• The Hindi version shows a huge bomb squad arriving, immediately searching the place where the bomb is kept and diffusing on their own- all these happen within 15 minutes

• Commissioner Anupam is shown extracting information from the agent himself. Also, the agent lets out the information on just seeing Arif, what is the background for the same?

• The cops make no effort to move the reporter from the police station area.

• Naseer’s photo is shown in Intelligence report. Not sure how his name figured in such a short time. Dialogues like even his wife does not know what he is doing are strange. That means you have got the man too!

• The cop telling the Commissioner “we are always one step behind the terrorists” is demeaning.

• Arif comes in police jeep to catch the arms guy, thus allowing him to escape.

• Even in scene where the credit card lady calls, Anupam interrupts her after a long time.

Location: The choice of an old airport over a secured newly laid Juhu Airbase is good indeed.

• Using traditional techniques to draw sketches

• The reporter sees a police escort vehicle passing her vehicle in the Juhu Airbase.

Vehicle Choice: The choice of the vehicle to escort the terrorists is done better in UPO. Also, in Wednesday all terrorists are only handcuffed. They could possibly launch an attack.

• Asking terrorists to stay near the bench was not a good option.

Basis: The narratives (flashbacks) by the terrorist and the common man were not gripping

Welcome Additions in UPO


1) Better use of facts- Kandahar, 26/11, Meenambakkam, Sri Perumbudur, Coimbatore and Best Bakery. Tied all these together well.

2) Armory room scene: Good addition of scenes and dialogues.

3) Having the IIT drop out fact in UPO lent more credibility to the hacker role.

4) Terrorist locations: Keeping terrorist in different place (Bangalore) is well thought too.

5) Making the cop Sethu to rehearse before communicating to the media and the Commissioner viewing what was captured during the recording.

6) Making changes in script post 26/11- Bullet shields and familiarity with call routing techniques.

7) Religion based: The way Mohan Lal tries to find out if Kamal is Hindu or Muslim repeatedly

8) Ending scene dialogues: Addition of dialogues like Voter id, invisible man, “Terrorism is instant, why shouldn’t justice be so”.

9) Last scene- totally different. In Hindi, you are not able to figure why Anupam develops a soft corner for Naseer suddenly.

Scenes where Wednesday is better than UPO

1) Call tracing was better shown in Wednesday.

2) Before bomb diffusing scene, Anupam’s dialogue to cop Jai brings out how the cops are ready to sacrifice their lives.

3) Presentation: The presentation about the terrorists is much better in Wednesday. It explains what they did in various parts of India.

4) Chase scene where Arif catches arms guy. Having the arms guy caught by police was better than having him in ICU and getting him discharged to general ward.

5) Some dialogues in Ending scene by Naseer- some dialogues were too good, The way Naseer tells that my wife is afraid when I go out, she calls me every 2 hrs to see if I am fine, we are resilient by force and not by choice, common man was taking care of household, should I wait for something to happen to my family member to take action were very good. UPO has omitted some of these intentionally because they were not relevant from a Tamil Nadu context.

Other Aspects:

UPO showed light fading away as the evening approached. Better choice of the construction building and other locations.

Acting:

Mohan Lal clearly scores over Anupam Kher (with all respects to Anupam’s good work). Mohan Lal brings out the cool, fleet thinking aspect of this role better.

Kamal and Naseer- both have done exceedingly well. In a role where you are seated in the same place and doing a similar action, Kamal brings out excellent voice modulation and variations in facial expressions better than Naseer. The reaction he gives when he hears the name of the cop itself deserves a special mention. This extraordinary man can act like a common man too!

Lakshmi as Chief Secretary enacts a brilliant performance and so is Ganesh Venkatraman as Arif Khan

Definitely, UPO scores over Wednesday, in most of the film making aspects as clearly evident from our analysis. A remake has its own advantages and provides opportunity for correcting the flaws found in the original. If you have creative minds like Kamal and Chakri, you are more likely to add fresh appealing content too and present the film in the best possible manner. While UPO deserves all the credits it truly deserves, take your time to salute the original for its daring attempt to make a film with No songs, crass comedy, fights, heroine, larger than life characters and not sticking to the conventional duration of films.

Films like these are sure to stay!

Thanks & regards,
Karthik
karthik.cit@gmail.com
 

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