Neerja: Movie review of Neerja

Fox Star Studios and Bling Unplugged’s Neerja is the true-life story of brave airhostess Neerja Bhanot who died while saving the lives of passengers aboard a PanAm flight, after it was hijacked by terrorists.

Neerja Bhanot (Sonam Kapoor), an accomplished airhostess and also a model, is on board a flight from Bombay to New York via Karachi and Frankfurt. Although she has flown on a number of flights, this is her first flight as head purser. The moment the flight makes its first stop at Karachi, it is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists who are demanding the release of some criminals. The pilots in the cockpit escape from the aircraft as soon as Neerja informs them that the aeroplane has been hijacked, leaving the cabin crew and the 379 passengers aboard, at the mercy of the gun-toting terrorists.

The terrorists now begin to demand that the Karachi officials provide them a pilot who would take the aircraft to Cyprus but the Pakistani airport officials are buying time. The nervous and edgy terrorists kill one person who was holding an American passport, to impress upon the officials that they mean business. The passengers and cabin crew members are terrified as the terrorists threaten to kill more. But Neerja, with her unbelievable sense of equanimity and presence of mind, keeps postponing the impending carnage.

Ultimately, due to sheer grit and presence of mind, Neerja manages to evacuate and save 359 of the 379 passengers but is unable to save her own life, laying it down in the call of duty.

Alongside this chapter of braveheart Neerja Bhanot’s life are shown glimpses of her days with her family members. Her mother, Rama Bhanot (Shabana Azmi), is a doting mother. Her father, Harish Bhanot (Yogendra Tiku), always teaches her to be brave and to face all difficulties with courage. He works in a newspaper office and gets the news of the hijack before anyone else. Neerja’s failed marriage with a heartless and inconsiderate Naresh (Kavi Shastri) haunts her on a couple of occasions even while she is braving it out against the terrorists. Jaideep (Shekhar Ravjiani), a close friend, is keen to marry Neerja but she has not yet been able to get over the scars of the first marriage.

The film shows the hijack drama in all detail. It also shows the preparation of the Palestinian terrorists before they hijack the PanAm aircraft. Snatches from Neerja’s life mostly come in flashbacks when she is putting up a brave fight against the armed terrorists, in a bid to save the lives of her passengers, many of whom are children, women and old people.

Saiwyn Quadras has written a heart-rending story of Neerja Bhanot, borrowed from the real-life story of the braveheart airhostess of PanAm. The story has many emotional moments which shake the audience and make them cry, sob and weep. His screenplay is cleverly crafted and his weaving of the drama of her personal life into the hijack drama is absolutely outstanding. Emotion is the catchword in the drama and Saiwyn Quadras does not let go of it, making the viewers cry at regular intervals. The plight of the family members of Neerja is so poignantly brought out by the writer and director that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the audience is moved to tears every time Rama Bhanot or Harish Bhanot comes on the scene. The scenes in which Neerja is shown to be using her sharp mind to save lives are so beautifully written that instead of applauding in the cinemas with claps, the viewers silently shed tears for Neerja! It is almost as if they are scared, their thunderous applause would alert the hijackers, so real is the drama which unfolds on the screen!!

The climax speech by Rama Bhanot on the first death anniversary of Neerja is one of the best written scenes in recent times. It will move everybody to tears and the tears will flow continuously, through the entire speech. The weak-hearted would actually weep inconsolably! The victory of the film is in the fact that the audience will not move even when the end titles are rolling – it finds itself speechless and motionless. No doubt, the film will appeal more to the audience in the bigger centres but that’s because the dialogues spoken by the terrorists are kept in the foreign language and can be comprehended by the viewers by reading the subtitles, something the audiences in the smaller centres are not used to. But the emotional appeal of the entire drama is universal and that will help the film do business in small centres too.

Sanyukta Chawla Shaikh’s dialogues are natural to the core and pierce the heart, adding to the emotional appeal of the drama.

Sonam Kapoor, it seems, was born to play Neerja Bhanot. She looks every inch the airhostess she plays and she delivers an extraordinary performance. The way she conveys her poise and balance of mind in the face of adversity is indeed praiseworthy. For all those who felt, Sonam is a wooden actress and only all about looks, this film is her answer to them. Shabana Azmi is mind-blowing! She makes every single, repeat, every single scene in which she appears, memorable. She makes the audience cry buckets with a performance which may well go down as one of the best ever not just in her career or in Indian cinema but in world cinema. Every single award for the best character actress may well be Shabana’s this year. Frankly, no amount of praise would be too much for Shabana Azmi in this film. Yogendra Tiku is another splendid actor who makes the character of Neerja’s father memorable with an absolutely heartfelt performance. His expressions and his body language are to simply die for! A word here about the dialogue deliveries of Shabana Azmi and Yogendra Tiku when they converse with each other after learning about the hijack operation – their dialogue deliveries are exceptional. It is delightful to see them falter, murmur, mutter and even console each other, trying to put up a brave front while internally dying a hundred deaths. Shekhar Ravjiani makes a definite mark in a special appearance, in the role of Jaideep. Kavi Shastri leaves an impression as Neerja’s wretched husband, Naresh. Jim Sarbh evokes hatred in the role of terrorist Khalil. Abrar Zahoor (as Safirini), Vikrant Singta (as Fahad), Ali Baldiwala (as Mansoor) and Ismail Mohammad Mirza (as Al Turk) lend excellent support. Sushil Tyagi is effective as Inzamam Younis. Nikhil Sangha (as Akhil Bhanot) and Arjun Aneja (as Aneesh Bhanot) are very natural. Shashi Bhushan shines as Imran Ali. Meghana Kaushik (as Sanjana), Eisha Chopra (as Debina), Sunanda Wong (as Tina), Anjali Khurana (as Dolly), Deepak Shah (as Brigadier), Aarush Rana (as Jatin Desai) and the child actors and other actors playing the passengers are all very good.

Ram Madhvani’s direction deserves distinction marks. Just from the manner in which he starts the narration, it is evident to the viewer that the man knows his job and has a distinct style of his own. Credit to him for extracting such great work from out of his cast members and for extracting the audienc’s emotions to the fullest. Although there is no scope for music, the songs (composed by Vishal Khurana) come as a good aside. Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics are, of course, rich and meaningful. Vishal Khurana’s background music is remarkable. Mitesh Mirchandani’s camerawork is extraordinary. Manohar Verma’s action scenes are very real. Production designing (by Aparna Sud and Anna Ipe) is appropriate. Monisha R. Baldawa’s editing is outstanding. Full marks to her for a job wonderfully done.

On the whole, Neerja is a surefire hit. It is a human drama which will move the audience to tears a number of times. Because the story is not too well-known, the curiosity value of the film will be immense, more so because it presents a realistic account of what happened in the hijack drama of 1986. The film may have started slow but there can be no two opinions about the prediction that the film has wings to take flight and its collections will shoot up on the strength of a hugely positive word of mouth.

Sanam Re: MOvie Review Sanam Re

Series’ Saman Re is a love triangle. Little Akash (master Neil Tyagi) falls in love with little Shruti (baby Delissa Mehra). Their love blossoms all through their schooling days, till, one day, at the end of their schooling, Akash (Pulkit Samrat) has to leave his home town and go to Bombay for further studies. He leaves without informing Shruti (Yami Gautam).

He returns to his home town several years later, to sell the photo studio owned by his grandfather (Rishi Kapoor). His boss (Manoj Joshi) in Bombay threatens to dismiss him because of which he returns to Bombay as soon as the sale is completed. To save his job, he must now get a contract from Mrs. Pablo whom he has never met. To meet Mrs. Pablo, he goes to Canada because she has enrolled herself in a yoga camp there, after divorcing Mr. Pablo. The yoga camp has a strange rule – people have to enrol themselves under pseudonyms. This makes it even more difficult for Akash to trace Mrs. Pablo. However, he does ultimately succeed. Akash also gets lucky and meets his childhood sweetheart, Shruti, who has registered under the name of Anjali. Shruti denies that she is Shruti but, nevertheless, she spends a lot of time with Akash at the yoga camp, which alludes more to sex talk than yoga when an erstwhile sex addict (Bharti Singh), now reformed, fills in for the disposed yoga instructor.

Participants complete the yoga course and return to their respective homes. By the end of the course, Mrs. Pablo, who, it turns out, was also a childhood friend of Akash, has fallen in love with Akash. But she soon realises that Akash loves Shruti. Why, Mrs. Pablo even assists Akash in tracing Shruti as she has not given her address to Akash.

Does Akash track down Shruti? Why is Shruti unwilling to admit that she is Akash’s childhood beloved? Is she taking revenge because Akash had left for Bombay, for further studies, years back, without informing her? Or is there some other reason? Does Akash get Shruti’s love or do his grandfather’s words, that he would never get the love of his life, prove prophetic? Does Mrs. Pablo sacrifice her love? Or does Akash marry her?

Sanjeev Datta has written a very childish story which fails to strike a chord in the viewer’s heart. He makes it appear to be an intense love story but the shallowness manifests itself every now and then, making it look like a joke of a love story. His screenplay is weak, to say the least. Making little Akash ask questions about love, lady love, and matters of the heart to his grandfather looks irritating rather than cute as was the intention. Why the yoga camp is made to appear like a quasi-sex camp is not explained. The entire angle of Akash’s grandfather telling little Akash that he would find love within 500 steps from their photo studio looks silly, more so because Akash takes it literally and searches for love at the end of 500 steps rather than within 500 steps. The grown-up Akash asking the tea-stall owner whether his own grandfather’s prophecy generally comes true looks a bit silly. Frankly, the screenplay runs out of steam every once in a while and the director tries to camouflage this major shortcoming by letting the camera capture the snow-filled locations and falling snow flakes, probably not realising that there’s a difference between content and visuals and one can only complement the other, not replace the other.

The twist in the end is a nice one but that’s actually about all. In other words, the screenplay has just one scene which touches the heart! The comedy is weak. Sanjeev Datta and Hussain Dalal’s dialogues are ordinary for most of the part. At a couple of places, they are even incorrect. For instance, the characters keep referring to the ‘importance’ of quality of life but keep talking about the ‘necessity’ of quality of life!!

Pulkit Samrat is ordinary and fails to rise above the script. He looks good, of course, but his performance is routine. Yami Gautam does an average job. Urvashi Rautela hardly gets any scope to perform. Rishi Kapoor is alright in a special appearance. Manoj Joshi tries to entertain but succeeds only at places. Bharti Singh just about evokes laughter in a role which does not do justice to her talent. Prachi Shah is okay as Akash’s mother. Divya Khosla Kumar’s dance in an item song is average. Ketaki Dave and Jiten Mukhi have been wasted. Ashish Kaul (as Akash’s father), Ashwin Kaushal (as the landlord), Rajender Sharma (as Bantoo), master Neil Tyagi (as little Akash), baby Delissa Mehra (as little Shruti), baby Kritikaa (as little Akanksha), S.K Batra (as Shruti’s father), Abhishek Khanna (as the office peon), Uday Nene, Kaizeen Daruwala and Vishal Malhotra (all three as friends of Akash), Shashwita Sharma (as Akash’s maid) and the others just about fit the bill.

Divya Khosla Kumar’s direction is routine, at best. Her choice of subject is very poor. Music is the film’s biggest asset. While the title track (composed by Mithoon) is fantastic, the other songs (Mithoon, Jeet Ganguli, Amaal Malik and Epic Bhangra) are also good. Lyrics (by Rashmi Virag, Mithoon, Manoj Muntashir, Manoj Yadav, Ikka and Kumaar) are nice. Choreography (by Divya Khosla Kumar and Ganesh Acharya; ‘Hum ne pee rakhi hai’ by Directorgifty) is commonplace. Raju Singh’s background music leaves something to be desired. Sameer Arya’s camerawork is lovely. The locations are truly heavenly. Salonee Dhatrak’s production designing is nice. Chandrashekhar Prajapati’s editing is not upto the mark.

On the whole, Sanam Re is a dull film with good music as its plus point. In fact, it is because of the very popular music that the film has opened reasonably well. But it does not have the strength to sustain in the cinema houses for too long and will not be able to do much at the box-office. Its medium budget on the one hand and recoveries from non-theatrical sources on the other will ensure that the producers make a profit.

Movie review of Fitoor

UTV Motion Pictures and Guy In The Sky Pictures’ Fitoor (UA) is a love story which begins in Kashmir and travels to Delhi and London.

Noor (master Mohammed Abrar Sheikh) is a very young boy who one day helps a jihadi, Muazzam (Ajay Devgan), by providing him food and shelter. Muazzam escapes when the police, in search of him, reach too close for comfort. Noor, who lives in Kashmir with his sister and brother-in-law, is not very well-off and so, he soon starts working for a rich heiress, Begum (Tabu). Begum has a little daughter, Firdaus (baby Tunisha Sharma), whom young Noor falls in love with as soon as he sees her. Begum realises this and tells him that he’d have to work hard and achieve a lot in life if he wanted to be close to Firdaus.

Soon, Firdaus also starts liking Noor. She invites him for her birthday party but Noor loses his sister in a bomb explosion the same day and hence can’t make it to the party. He goes to Firdaus the next day to share the sad news with her but is shocked to know that Begum has sent her away to another city for studies. Since he has loved Firdaus, Noor is unable to forget her over the years.

Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur), a young man now, is a fine painter. Begum encourages him to pursue his art and one day, he gets a chance to go to Delhi for further polishing his art. In Delhi, he learns some things about painting under Leena Becker (Lara Dutta), who holds an exhibition of his paintings. The exhibition is a grand success.

In Delhi, Noor meets Firdaus (Katrina Kaif) who has grown up to be a very beautiful girl. The old sparks between Noor and Firdaus are re-ignited. Sensing this, Begum, who is in Kashmir, tries to keep Firdaus away from Noor. However, Noor and Firdaus get physical one day.

Soon thereafter, Firdaus leaves for Kashmir to look after her ailing mother, leaving a letter for Noor. In the letter, she explains to Noor that as she is soon to get married to a rich and influential guy in Pakistan, she may not be able to meet him (Noor) again. Aghast, Noor reaches Kashmir and confronts Firdaus who plays hard to get. Begum is relieved that Firdaus has shunned Noor.

Then, one day, at an auction of paintings, where Noor’s painting is also up for sale, he meets Firdaus who has come with her beau, Bilal (Rahul Bhat), and her to-be father-in-law, Salman (Talat Aziz). He tries hard to convince Firdaus that she should leave Bilal and marry him as he loves her, but Firdaus tells him that she won’t marry him as she has no such feeling of love for him.

Noor is now convinced that he has lost Firdaus forever. Soon, Noor gets a chance to go to London to participate in an international art exhibition. Begum, too, reaches there and compliments him for his sculpture and painting. And then, Muazzam, the jihadi whom Noor had helped many years ago, re-enters his life and reveals a secret that shocks him. What is that secret?

Noor confronts Begum and asks her why she wouldn’t let Firdaus marry him? Incidentally, Begum has been pressurising Firdaus to get over Noor and marry Bilal.

Begum has a past which prompts many of her actions even today. What is that past and why is it so devastating for Begum? There is also a secret between Begum and Firdaus. What is it? Does Firdaus marry Bilal or does she listen to her heart and return to Noor?

The film is based on Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations. The screenplay, adapted from the novel, is penned by Suprateek Sen and Abhishek Kapoor. The story is quite confusing due to the following reasons – there are too many characters in it; the suspense about Begum’s past is revealed quite late; the character of young Begum is played by an actress (Aditi Rao Hydari) who is different from the actress playing the present-day Begum (Tabu), something which takes a long time to register. The screenplay moves at a very slow pace, often testing the audience’s patience. Of course, the many twists and turns in the drama prevent the interest level of the audience from declining to an alarmingly low level but even they cannot make up for the boredom which creeps in at several points. Although it is a love story, the romance in the film is far from heart-warming or happy and, in fact, has a tinge of sadness and depression associated with it. There are simply no light moments in the film, making the drama appear even more depressing. Emotions just don’t touch the heart as the character of Noor never really makes such a place in the viewers’ hearts that they end up feeling miserable for Noor when Firdaus walks out on him. Firdaus’ character is quite sketchy so that the audience tends to believe her when she tells Noor that she doesn’t love him. The revelation of the suspense – Begum’s past – may shock the audiences but they aren’t still able to appreciate, even if they understand, why she did what she did in the love story of Firdaus and Noor. The audience gets confused at several places, not just because there are too many characters and flashbacks but also because some of the characters re-emerge in the film after long periods of absence. Suprateek Sen’s dialogues are excellent and several of them touch the heart – more than the story and the screenplay.

Aditya Roy Kapur does a very ordinary job as Noor. He has the same expression on his face almost throughout the film and fails to evoke sympathy for his character. He doesn’t quite match up to Katrina Kaif who plays Firdaus, whom Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur) loves. Katrina Kaif does fairly well. But her costumes are often quite an eye-sore. Tabu steals the show with a terrific performance, playing the frustrated Begum with élan. Ajay Devgan adds star value in a guest appearance as Muazzam, who re-appears, after years, as Mirza Baig. Rahul Bhat is adequate as Bilal, in a special appearance. Aditi Rao Hydari leaves a mark as young Begum. Master Mohammed Abrar Sheikh (as little Noor) and baby Tunisha Sharma (as little Firdaus) are both endearing and also confident. Lara Dutta leaves a mark as Leena Becker. Kunaal Khyaan looks handsome and makes his mark as Aarif. Akshay Oberoi is effective in a brief role as Mufti. Talat Aziz is alright as Salman. Rayees Mohi-ud-din performs ably as Junaid. Khalida Jaan Tourey (as Rukhsar), Ajaz Rah (as Kaleem), Ishwak Singh (as Zafar Peerbhoy), Dilnaz Irani (as Samira Peerbhoy), Namit Malhotra (as Jagirdar), Jason Shah (as Aarif’s friend), Kavita Seth (as Hazrat’s mother), Sameer Roy (as young Salman) and the others provide the desired support.

Abhishek Kapoor’s direction, like the script, would find favour with the class audience mainly. His narration doesn’t really make the confusing proceedings very easy for the masses to comprehend. Amit Trivedi’s music is hit. The ‘Pashmina’ song and the title track are supremely melodious numbers. Swanand Kirkire’s lyrics are rich. Bosco-Caesar’s choreography is in keeping with the film’s mood. Hitesh Sonik’s background music is effective. Anay Goswami does an absolutely fantastic job with his camera. If the locations are heavenly, the cinematography does full justice to them. Mayur Sharma’s art direction and Sukant Panigrahi, Shashank Tere and Nidhi Rungta’s production designing are appropriate. Deepa Bhatia’s editing is very good.

On the whole, Fitoor is very slow and confusing too. Rather than happiness, it sells depression. It may be liked by a section of the class audience but it will be rejected by the masses and will, therefore, prove to be a box-office disaster, entailing a huge loss to all concerned.