Black Friday, a movie on the book of the same name written by S. Hussain Zaidi, throws light on the series of bomb blasts that rocked Bombay 14 years ago. Directed by Anurag Kashyap, the movie can be said as a masterpiece as it exposes the truth behind these blasts in the most perfect and acceptable way.
I would like to divide my synopsis into three parts: Before the blasts, the bomb blasts, after the blasts.
BEFORE THE BLASTS: December 6, 1992 was the worst day for India. It was the day when the Kar Sevaks demolished the 440-year old Babri Masjid at Ayodhya. This was followed by the Bombay riots that took the lives of more than thousands, mostly Muslims. Tiger Memon, a criminal, decides to take revenge of these riots and to do something that will shock the whole world. He decides to explode blasts at various places in Bombay. For this, he forms a gang of Muslims and illegally takes them to a remote place at Pakistan. Here the gang members are given training. They are also given instructions about hand grenade, RDX, pencil-shaped detonators etc. Then they are taken back to Bombay.
THE BLASTS: On March 9, 1993, the Bombay Police arrest Gullu, one of the gang members. He tells the police about the place about the blasts and he did not told about the places where the blasts would take place, as he had no idea about it. The gang members now decide to explode the blasts as fast as possible. So they start manufacturing bombs very quickly. In order to avoid danger, Tiger Memon proceeds to Dubai. Three days later, on March 12, 1993, Bombay gets rocked by a series of bomb blasts at the following places: The Bombay Stock Exchange, The Worli Passport Office, the crowded Zaveri Bazar, The Air-India Building, Plaza Theatre at Dadar, Lucky petrol pump besides Shiv Sena Bhavan at Dadar, Hotel Sea Rock at Bandra, Hotel Centaur near Airport and Hotel Centaur at Juhu. It takes the lives of more than 300 people and leaves more than thousands injured. Tow days later, Tiger Memon orders all his gang members to leave Mumbai at once. Some of these members leave Mumbai and go to their native place, some go to Dubai and some remain in Mumbai
AFTER THE BLASTS: To investigate on these blasts, a team is organized under Inspector Rakesh Maria (Kay Kay Menon). He decided to keep an eye on all those who were arrested during Bombay riots and if necessary, arrest them. In this way, he arrests more than 200 and the Bombay police come to know about the reasons behind the blasts. Baadshah Khan (Aditya Shrivastava) who was also involved in the blasts gets arrested in Rampur, and he becomes a police witness and tells the Mumbai police everything in detail.
Black Friday has only one aim-to show the truth and nothing else. Each scene in the movie is carried out and shown in such a way that it looks totally real. Right from the planning of the blasts, the bomb blasts, the police interrogation, post-blasts-everything is shown in reality style. That’s where Black Friday scores!
The pre-interval portion is thrilling, electrifying and moves in a very rapid speed. The film starts with a bang and the blasts and police interrogation shakes you. The conversation of Kay Kay Menon and Aditya Shrivastav just before the intermission point is excellent and one of the powerful scene of the movie. The post-interval portion is also very fast but here the movie gets slightly confusing. The movie ends in a very proper and acceptable manner.
Black Friday rests on the power-packed performance of three actors- Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Shrivastav and Pawan Malhotra (as Tiger Menon). Pawan Malhotra gets into the skin of the character and enacts his role with utmost perfection. In each scene, he was excellent and deserves 10 out of 10 for his performance! Well done!
Kay Kay Menon gives a formal and a perfect performance. He performed as an honest inspector would and the scenes where he was having a shower and puts his head in the bucket of water shows that he was fed up with these interrogations and the torture of the accused. He scores mainly in the interrogation scene of Adtya Shrivastav, just before intermission. He was hardly there after the interval. But though his performance is the one which you remember even after you come out of the theatre.
Aditya Shrivastava gives a great performance. He scores, mostly in the scenes in which he had to wander from Delhi, Rampur, Jaipur, Tonk and again to Rampur. Pratima Kazmi was okay. Vijay Maurya as Dawood Ibrahim enacts an outstanding performance! He looks completely like Dawood Bhai!! Others do a fine job.
S Natrajan Subramaniam’s cinematography is excellent and it is the best during the blast sequences. Music by Indian Ocean is nice and goes with the haunting mood of the movie. K J Singh uses the right sounds of the movie. The sound during the blast scenes is very loud and totally terrific.
Anurag Kashyap deserves a pat on the back for providing such a superb direction for this movie. His screenplay is also brilliant and very effective. He brings back the episode and memories of March 12, 1993 but in such a way that it does not evoke any anger or hatred and also it does not hurt any religious sentiments. Excellent work, Mr Anurag!
Some of the best scenes of the movie:
The blast sequences in the beginning
The interrogation of Asgar Muqadam (hair-raising scene)
The conversation of Kay Kay Menon and Aditya Shrivastava before intermission
The scene where Aditya Shrivastava fights with his colleagues for passport in Jaipur
The scene where Aditya Shirvastava gets arrested
The scene where Aditya Shrivastava decides to become a police witness
The scenes of Dawood Ibrahim
The scene where Tiger Menon’s gang is given training in a remote place in Pakistan
The last scene of the movie
On the whole, Black Friday is a fantastic movie. It’s a masterpiece. It has a gripping direction, power-packed performance and a must watch for everyone. Just don’t miss it!
My rating-1/2
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