As a work of fan-fiction, Azhar is a mostly watchable film with a solid lead, but falls far short of being either entertaining, insightful, or worthy of recommendation. Hashmi and D'Souza try hard, and their effort shows.I just wish I could have said the boys played well.

Too late even for a late night show, this one should have hit the theatres a decade ago. It would have made sense then. Now, it will drown in the next trending troll on Twitter. Even on Facebook. Like cricket, fixing has now become an art. Planners book five-star hotels to cast their net, divide matches as if they are planning high-sea fishing (each must have his own zone of catch). You have to be bloody realistic — like Blood Diamond — to make something like this going.

It is at its heart the story of innocence lost -- the innocence of Azhar, the innocence of unnumbered fans who invested in his magic, the innocence of a sport that had shed its shady origins and reinvented itself as ‘the gentleman’s game’. And it is this that makes the story of Azhar a natural for a biopic.What we get, instead, is a fanpic -- a bland, badly-set soufflé of Bollywood tropes without a soul.

“Azhar” is an unmitigated disaster only because of its relentless idolization of an obviously flawed man. A more subtle, honest and casual admission of the cricketer’s repeated lapses in judgments would perhaps have made him look less greedy, and more deserving of sympathy and forgiveness.

In all, this Tony D'Souza film works solely because of Emraan Hashmi. The actor pours in his heart and soul into playing Azhar, being Azhar.

AZHAR is a highly engaging piece of cinema that grips you completely and keeps you guessing. The story telling is objective as it shows both sides of the coin. You are simultaneously treated to the arguments for and against the verdict on Azhar's personal and public upheavals. You are also made to come across a fiercely hungry actor in Emraan Hashmi who simply grabs you by your eyeballs and compels you to witness his masterful knock! AZHAR is a superlative watching experience. Don't miss it for anything!

Director Tony D'Souza's Azhar is a vanilla look at a story that could've been both riveting and hard hitting. In stead of presenting Mohammed Azharuddin as a man of many contradictions and supreme talent, it portrays him as a victim and stoic person. In a classic example of bad taste, the film also casts moral aspersions on other cricketers but projects Azhar as a righteous hero.  It's the oldest trick in the book to gain sympathy. Sadly, it's just not good enough.

'Azhar' is clearly made as an attempt at redemption for the tainted cricketer and India's ex-captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Unfortunately, you walk out of the theatre with no emotions, no sympathy, except for remorse at having wasted another two hours of your life on a strictly mediocre film.