First AIRLIFT and now NEERJA, it seems this year is going to be the best one for Bollywood, as we are now seeing some sincere movies, wherein producers are daring to do biopic, inspirational biopics. Today I watched one more superb movie, which is a telltale of a great Indian Hero - NEERJA BHANOT. Let’s see why she was counted as the great hero of India.
It was the morning of 5 Sept 1986, when Neerja was promoted to Head Purser for that morning flight Pan Am 73, its route was from Bombay-Karachi-Frankfurt-New York. All went well, but everything goes from good to worse, when 4 terrorists hijacked the plan at Karachi International Airport, and then start the full day long siege, with Neerja emerging as the bravest one.
This movie is based on real-life hero Neerja Bhanot who was a model cum Pan Am purser, and who was recovering from a bad marriage affair, and then she showed courage during that incident which saved many passengers lives, out of 379 passengers, 359 survives due to courage shown by her. She was awarded highest bravery award of India - Ashok Chakra posthumously, alongwith this she got many other awards which includes Pakistan’s Tamgha-e-insaniyat and awards from the US govt as well. Her parents also established a trust on her name to give an award called Neerja Bhanot award to those daring ladies of India who faces social injustice and then dare to fight it. I Salute this Iron Lady.
This movie is directed by Ram Madhvani, I’ve never heard his name before, and yet he directed the movie superbly, every actor, with so many extras acted well upto the mark, including the foreign actors. The movie has pure aesthetic feel, they showed the Pan-Am airlines taking off and landing, and the set of hijacked plane looks so real that you can count this movie as a strong contendar against hollywood movies. In this incident, the terrorists were not from a land of hindi/urdu, they spoke a different language, and so did here the actors playing terrorist gang spoke, and ehich gave the movie a real feel. You’ll have english subtitles to support you, authentically made movie I must say, and true justice done by the film makers to the incident. Well as per the wikipedia source, Ram Madhvani has won a bronze & silver lion at cannes for directing a Happy Dent White Commercial:O(which was on # 11 out of voted top 20 commercials by Gunn Report). And let me say for the first time I can say that Sonam can definitely act, she did a superb job here, had she been the same sonam which I’ve watched over and over again, this movie van become a disaster, but she showed finally her emotional skill, the scenes of her during the hijack crisis were awesome, and added to the emotional feel. Other actors, including esp the one terrorist(dont know his name) who was angry of the lot did brilliant, he showed his acting skills as well. Though I must appreciate all for their good acting. Shabana Azmi, Yogendra Tiku also justified their role of Neerja’s parents.
The actual incident is intermingled with flashback scenes related with Neerja’s life, and they’re aptly added, and the movie hold you till the end. background score justified the scenes intensity. The movie is a bit slow for 2hr duration, but that should not be a hindrance to the viewers who appreciate watching a sincerely made movie about our forgotten hero.
In the midst of chaos created by few educated fools in the name of freedom of speech, here’s a movie released about a hero who shows her heroic effort, she shows the courage and was the true Indian, many of us are not Indian anymore. I rate this movie 4/5.
GRuchirG.
Pushpa. I hate tears.