“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.

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.

What a pity, though. Azhar could honestly have been a great biopic, even within its own self-imposed limitations. Instead, like Azharuddin, it chooses to ignore its own potential and thereby shoots itself in the foot.

Sports drama ‘Chak De India’ had brilliantly captured the politics of hockey on-field and off it, unfortunately ‘Azhar’ refrains from doing either. It remains, but sadly a story of a fallen hero, “fixed” Bollywood style.

Azhar is a superficial look at the life of one of the most enigmatic and intriguing sporting stars this country has ever seen. It is an opportunity lost.

Watch it if you too are curious about the the story of the once-celebrated captain of the Indian cricket team who only seconds M.S.Dhoni in being the most successful. It will be hard to miss this as one of Hashmi’s better performances.

Even if Azhar wasn’t so sketchily written and the cricket scenes weren’t so tacky, this would be a tall order. The makers might have been better off trying to explain how he pulled off those impossible leg glances rather than how he took (but didn’t actually take) money to throw matches.

Azhar lacks spine. It is evident in the long disclaimer preceding the film in which the team seems to be making a claim on cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin’s colourful and controversial life as a source material yet maintaining that it is a fictional account. All to escape the legal battles the film could land them in.

Tony D’Souza’s film about Mohammed Azharuddin plays out like an episode from the TV show ‘CID’.