A Thursday

A Thursday is a 2022 Indian Hindi vigilante thriller film written and directed by Behzad Khambata. The film, produced by RSVP Movies stars Yami Gautam, Atul Kulkarni, Neha Dhupia, Dimple Kapadia, and Karanvir Sharma. It premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 17 February 2022. The film received mixed reviews, but Gautam's performance was praised.

At the 2022 Filmfare OTT Awards, A Thursday received 4 nominations – Best Web Original Film, Best Actress in a Web Original Film (Gautam), Best Supporting Actor in a Web Original Film (Kulkarni) and Best Supporting Actress in a Web Original Film (Dhupia).

Plot
Naina Jaiswal, who teaches at the Little Tots play school in Colaba (part of Mumbai), had been on leave for three weeks for an unknown reason. The school is in front of the property owned by Rohit Mirchandani, Naina’s fiance, where Rohit lives. Parents drop off their children, and Naina asks one parent to send a cake since the next day is their daughter Niharika’s birthday. The parent asks if their driver can deliver the cake to the school. Everyone leaves, and Naina snaps; she calls the police station and tells them that she has 16 children as hostages. Niharika’s driver arrives with a cake and Savitri, the helper, returns for her phone; both are also taken hostage.

The police suspect it is a hoax, but Naina fires a shot. ACP Catherine Alvarez contacts her, but Naina says that she will only negotiate with Officer Javed Khan. Javed is brought to the scene, and she tells him that she will free one child for every demand he meets. Her first demand is for a transfer of ₹5 crore to her account. Catherine and Javed had a romantic history, and are incompatible when working together. Catherine does not listen to Javed, and tries to send armed police inside. Naina kills Aakash, one of the children, in alphabetical order, as she had said. The Commissioner of Police places Javed in charge and assigns Catherine to do research.

Naina’s second demand is to speak to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Maya Rajguru talks to Naina on the phone, and Naina urges her to meet her in person. Naina then tells Javed to find Rakesh Mathur and Charan Kumar, who she last knew were working at a school in Goregaon (a Mumbai suburb) and bring them to her. The police find Rakesh, but are unable to locate Charan. No one knows what Naina is up to, and Javed and his team have no choice but to agree to her demands because the children are still hostages.

During a background check, Catherine learns that Naina has been taking antidepressants and seeing a psychologist since she was 16 years old. She searches Naina’s house and finds receipts for medication prescribed by Dr. Juneja. Catherine contacts the doctor, and Javed gets hold of Naina’s mother. Naina was raped when she was 16 years old, and Javed and Catherine were the officers in charge of the case. They paid little attention to Naina’s case, since they were pursuing a high-profile case to gain recognition. After begging them to help for two years, Naina’s mother became resigned to their indifference.

Prime Minister Rajguru decides to meet Naina in person, accompanied only by Javed. Naina brings up the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, which become effective in 2012 to protect children under the age of 18. Naina asks the prime minister why there is no protection for people over 18, and demands that her rapists face the death penalty. Rajguru tells her that legislation is a complex task that requires time, but her rapists are found and imprisoned. Naina then says that the child she supposedly killed is actually alive.

Although the police could not find Charan Kumar, Naina says that he is the family driver who brought Niharika’s birthday cake. He held Niharika's hand (arousing Naina's fear that he would rape the child as well), and Naina asked Niharika’s mother to send him with the cake so she could take him hostage; he was her rapist, while Rakesh held her hands. Naina shoots Charan, and the commandos enter the school and arrest her. Rohit salutes her, referring back to the start of the film where he says that you should only salute people who deserve it. While she is being transported to prison, Maya Rajguru brings up the issue of capital punishment in parliament. While teaching a class in prison, Naina picks up a newspaper, sees the headline, and smiles. The film ends with a statistic: Every 16 minutes, a woman is raped.

Cast

 * Yami Gautam as Naina Jaiswal
 * Atul Kulkarni as Javed Khan
 * Neha Dhupia as ACP Catherine "Cathy" Alvarez
 * Dimple Kapadia as Prime Minister Maya Rajguru
 * Karanvir Sharma as Rohit Mirchandani, Naina's fiance
 * Maya Sarao as Shalini Guha, Naina's friend Yash's mother
 * Sukesh Anand as Lokhande
 * Kalyanee Mulay as Savitri, Naina's maid
 * Boloram Das as Charan Kumar, Naina's rapist and Niharika's family driver
 * Shubhangi Latkar as Kusum Jaiswal, Naina's mother
 * Adi Irani as Police Commissioner
 * Divjyot Kaur as Renuka Dubey
 * Micky Makhija as Rohit's father
 * Sanjeev Jotangia as Malcolm
 * Sulagna Chatterjee as Aakash's mom
 * Bhavin Hirani as Aakash's dad
 * Raj Kumar sharma as Home Minister
 * Asim Sharma as PM PR REP
 * Hardika Sharma as Niharika (play school student)
 * Prachi Hada as journalist

Production
Principal photography began on 12 March 2021,  and wrapped in July of that year.

Reception
Cyril of India Today gave the film a rating of four out of five and wrote, "Yami Gautam's A Thursday is the kind of thriller that has been missing from Indian screens for a while". Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India rated it three out of five and wrote, "Despite a rather predictable backstory, A Thursday redeems itself with its powerful emotional arc and social commentary in the latter half. It touches upon a relevant issue that will resonate with women across the globe".

Pradeep Menon of Firstpost gave the film a rating of 2.75 out of five and wrote, "A Thursday strives to be urgent, relevant and cool, but succeeds only partially, because it stops to make a point far too often". Shubham Kulkarni of Koimoi rated it 2.5 out of five: "A Thursday is a Yami Gautam show and she does bring her A-game on. But the set-up ditches her a bit". Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express rated the film 1.5 out of five and wrote, "The chief problem with Yami Gautam's film is that we do not take any of this seriously, whether it is Naina brandishing a gun, or snarling and cooing at her hostages".

Soundtrack
The soundtrack to A Thursday contains twenty-one instrumental compositions used in the film score, curated and composed by Rooshin Dalal and Kaizad Gherda.