The bright part of Indian cinema today is, it is looking so real. In recent times with Talvar, Masaan, or Piku the happy gasp index has been pretty high. Gasping, not because of what’s happening to the characters in the story but gasping because Hindi cinema is finding a new high in the excellence of creativity on all fronts with the directors and actors leading the march.
Neerja, is a biographical account of the posthumously decorated young lady purser, of a PAN AM flight from Bombay to New York via Karachi, who outwitted successfully a motley group of hijackers. With a single stroke of presence of mind she ensured that the story for the hijackers ended where it began. Happening in an era when digital social media had to yet happen, her glory got only a minor mention then. It is to the credit of the makers and a regular advertisement director Ram Madhvani to research, delve and create an almost true to life Biopic. There is ample evidence of genuine intentions from the first frame on in its sincerity and is very real.
The title role is played from the heart by Sonam. My personal belief is that the accolades for a good performance are 70% of the director and 30% of the actor. That explains for me why an actor performs with varying degrees in the different roles in different movies. Besides that the beautiful and detailed characterization by the writers helps willing artistes to understand and sculpt themselves to the director’s vision. Sonam does this extremely effectively in the scenes before she gets on board the tragic flight. The scenes with the family including her mother(Shabana Azmi – she deserves a separate para) and her loving father(played with simplistic excellence by Yogendra) are marvelously touching, applause worthy and real. I keep repeating real because you forget that Sonam is really into the character that you forget the actress. Watch as she walks in from work to a party at home and interacts with the children.
The parallel track of Neerja’s life with the antagonists preparing for their evil act is extremely well edited without ever irritating the viewers. The movie creates quite a few characters who cannot be dismissed. Shekhar Ravjiani playing the boyfriend, who hopes to marry her while she hesitates due to memories of an earlier broken marriage, is very watchable with a pleasant screen presence. He underplays and sticks to the background never expecting any big lines. I think he has made a good start and can be seen stepping into roles that was earlier in the arena of Shekhar Kapur.
Shabana Azmi is the biggest gasp factor. It is ironical but actually a treat to watch her execute the role of the loving mother who refuses to believe that fate can traverse the path of her little girl, wrongly. Small touches like switching on the heater before waking up Neerja, giving her those extra five minutes of sleep like every mother does, cuddling her . Wow. Those scenes just stands out of the whole movie for me and flashes the academic advertising brilliance of the director. Watch also as she takes an emotional tennis ball and shoves it down your throat for a full 7 minutes in the climax, a scene which could have dangerously become ordinary.
Again the hijackers do not look very convincing with the writers focusing only on one of the hijackers Jim Sharbh managing to look menacing and giving a peek into possible frustration and confused ideologies of the perpetrators. He demands our complete attention and seems to have worked real hard on his character.
People overwhelmed with emotions may disagree, but I thought Sonam performed brilliantly as long as she was in the scenes with her family, a clear indicator of what being in the company of outstanding actors can do to you. She settles down into a regular execution mode in the hijack scenes with some flashes of comfortable brilliance. She is uncomfortable though in the scene where the hijacker makes her sing songs of her favorite idol Rajesh Khanna. The scene I doubt really happened and unnecessarily confuses the viewers into a tragicomic scene. Another time the director mistimes his actor is when the granny beckons the hijackers to kill her. Slightly inappropriate emotions one thought.
The camera work is brilliant throughout carrying the viewers throughout the narrow fuselage of the aircraft with acrobatic ease except in the beginning few scenes when the camerawork is unnecessarily unsteady almost feeling like a commercial from the Gold Spot days.
A few probable glitches though to be validated are aspects like whether making a V sign during pictures was that prevalent, modern looking air conditioners seem to dot many of the apartments in a housing complex, a color TV at home, a Gypsy( maybe out just that year?), the interiors of the aircraft looking modern, the door to the cockpit locked in times when it was believed to be quite accessible to the hostesses, guests at the airport wearing what looked like access cards, the large structural pillars of a modern airport, wheeled suitcases, announcements on pushback seats etc.
Art wise what stands out as exceedingly well done are the airport offices at Karachi airport, place where the hijackers assemble their ware, gate crashing through the airport simple approach in those days, the HT offices of Neerja’s father with their type writers.
Diminishing thoughts of how the film could have been even better is the best way to watch a wonderful tribute to the young lady who gave up her life so the rest could live. I think Atul, Shanti and Ram should be applauded for bringing a glorious closure to a hero who would have been otherwise lost in the events of history. Watch it not because it is a great film but it is a good film about a great person made from the heart. It does make you sadly gasp but leaves you having wanted more of the story of the young hero. A certain watch.
3 ½