I wasn’t much impressed by Rajkumar Gupta’s Aamir though I felt it had its moments of brilliance. So when No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ) was announced with Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan in the lead, I was apprehensive about the Jessica Lall murder case being presented in the right way. I confess that I had no idea what was the right way to present such a case. When I saw NOKJ I had to admit that Rajkumar Gupta had a pretty good idea.
The disclaimer at the beginning of the movie declared that NOKJ is a combination of fact and fiction – which is a good thing because nobody wants to watch a documentary on the big screen. It would have been a bad thing (for me at least) if this fact plus fiction had gone the Madhur Bhandarkar way but thankfully Gupta kept his storytelling dignified almost all the time without letting it become uninteresting.
Meera’s (Rani) voiceover at the beginning tells us that Delhi is all about power. Everyone here is a ‘somebody’. And the nobodys better stay in the fringes. This coupled with the brilliant ‘D-d-d-dilli dilli’ set the tone for the edgy ride ahead. Jessica (Myra) is a spunky little nobody who dares to say ‘no’ to a somebody. She is shot dead in a party full of somebodys. Open and shut case, thinks everybody including her timid sister Sabrina (Vidya). But her feelings change from certainty to doubt to disbelief as almost everybody present at the party claim they saw nothing. The few who do come forward to testify change their statements in court out of fear or greed.
Hats off to Rajkumar Gupta for keeping the audience hooked to the going-ons even though we know what is going to happen next. We know the witnesses are going to deny their earlier statements but we still feel as frustrated as Sabrina when they do. We love the three witnesses who stick to the truth (ironically one of them is a foreigner). We love the police officer who does his best to save a case his seniors are bent on destroying. As the case drags on and on, Sabrina walks around Delhi in a limbo and we are right there with her, feeling her pain (In a brilliant scene she stops just in time from bumping into an elephant in her path).
Gupta needs to be applauded for his perfect characterization (except for Rani’s character, more on that later). He doesn’t try to tell us that this is the good guy and this is the bad guy. Manish (Manu Sharma’s character) comes across as a regular guy who let power go to his head. After killing Sabrina he is shocked at what he did and scared out of his wits. After being released by the court the first thing he does to go to Vaishno Devi. His father is not your everyday loud bollywood politician. He is a silent figure who is ashamed of what his son did, scared of what it will do to his political career and frustrated of his wife’s repeated demands to get her son released. He is the guy who unashamedly threatens or bribes all the witnesses to save his son but also visits Jessica’s parents with his head bowed. No, the villain is not Manish or his father. The villain is the system that let them get away with it.
The focus shifts to Rani in the second half. And this is where the film starts going downhill. Not entirely Rani’s fault, it is the tone of the movie that changes. From the realistic portrayal of events, it changes into a plasticky description of how one woman, with the power of media behind her, manages to bring the high and mighty to their knees. The way the whole of India gets immersed into this case is also not very convincing. But the second half does have its redeeming points. The best is reserved for the last when Rani informs Vidya that the case has been re-opened. We don’t get to see the final verdict and feel triumphant because this really isn’t a triumph – at least not for Sabrina who wasted the best years of her life for what should have been an open and shut case.
Technically, the movie is very good in all aspects. The direction is very good and so is the screenplay. The music by Amit Trivedi and the lyrics are both unusual but excellent. The dialogues are another high point. The cinematographer has captured the spirit of Delhi very well.
Now for the performances. There are some performances that grab you by the collar and say, “Come with me, I will give you a good time”. And some performances are so natural that they are almost boring. Vidya does the latter so well I wanted to pull her into a tight hug. Rani tries the former but doesn’t quite manage it. Her swear-words spouting, self-proclaimed ‘bitch’ with a golden heart Meera is actually an urbanized version of Chulbul Pandey. She has the spunk but neither the swagger nor the edginess. The difference between Vidya and Rani’s performances isn’t in the facial expressions, it is in the body language. The supporting cast is very good be it the main accused, his two friends, his politician father, the defending lawyer, the witnesses and Rani’s colleagues. A special mention for the guy who plays the police officer. The only jarring performance was the actress who played Sabrina’s mother.
All in all, No One Killed Jessica is not a perfect movie but it has a lot of heart. It is easy to forgive the flaws when you know that the effort is sincere and not manipulative. Most importantly, it brings alive a rare chapter of our recent history which makes us – the common Indians – feel proud of ourselves.
My rating is 3.5 out of 5.