This is the ominous refrain of chess master Pandit Dhar (Amitabh Bachchan) in Wazir, a tense terrorist drama not dissimilar from American shows like 24. Daanish Ali (Farhan Akhater), a counter-terrorism agent, loses his daughter in a shootout with terrorist suspects from the hotly disputed Kashmir region. In despair, a series of events leads him to Pandit, a kindly old retiree who now runs children's chess programs. Pandit confides in him that the has also lost his daughter, and that though the death was officially ruled an accident, he suspects political intrigue on the part of Welfare Minister Yazaad Qureshi (Manav Kaul).
As the team of Pandit and Daanish comes closer to unveiling the nexus of corruption and personal animosity behind the deaths, a mysterious henchman (Neil Nitin Mukesh) code-named Wazir (the Hindi word for the queen chess piece) starts to harass Pandit. Where is he coming from, and how does he fit in this chess puzzle of alliance, betrayal, and grand strategy?
Overall, there is little in the concept of this film which will be too foreign to an American audience. Indeed, "terrorist thriller" is pretty much the national genre at this point. Yet the idea of chess as a metaphor in a violent confrontation is something you likely won't see in Hollywood. Rather than waterboard the bad guys into submission, in Wazir we are treated to a more mental approach to such problems, more of a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century than a Jack Bauer.
Final Word: An intelligent if familiar thriller...
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