Having missed the movie screening at the PIFF 2005 for reasons known to all Engineers (read Pune University) as "Fearum Factorum Endum Termum Submission-itis", and having struggled to find time to watch it later, I knew that I had not seen a great movie - so I gathered all my resources and finally saw the movie on my PC. My rating - ****1/2 (though nobody cares)
And in true appreciation of Anurag Kashyap's cinematic excellence, I felt that I was seeing the revival of Indian "sensible" cinema through this film - I am assuming this revival already happend in the late nineties and is now gaining foothold in our multiplexes. I kept in mind the context that the movie was made in 2004-end, and was really amazed by the awesome work of ACP Rakesh Maria by Kay Kay Menon (he wasn't that critically acclaimed then) and Tiger-"bhai" Pavan Malhotra and the rest of the cast. (distinguish Menon and Memon please !!!)
The attention to detail is critical in the movie, be it the gruesome images of the blast victims (I remember the fear since my father was in his office near Crawford Market that day but luckily was safe), the sequences shot in the Sion, Malad and Santa Cruz slums, the railway overbridges and the police stations, villages, cities and all the neat closeness to reality - make it a technically perfect movie, topped with really mind numbing music sequences - like the "arey ruk jaa re bande" and some other folk songs - really good work.
Throughout the movie Kashyap makes sure that the movie does not look like another Ramu Underworld movie (mainly because the characters here are real people and not fictitious) and has used his skills to portray the behind-the-scenes reality of the Bombay Blasts.
Personally the events that led to the blasts have had great impact on me as a child. I remember the turmoil of those times, as I was once on the street shouting "Mandir Wahi Banayenge" in 1989 for my shakha, and witnessing the rath yatra in the city and also remember being worried about my father who was posted in Bombay (Mumbai from 1994) from 1991 through 1994. I know friends and relatives or someone who were in the trains of the Ghatkopar blasts, the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts, and know how close they came to being the victims. These events always reminds me of how we take things for granted and how harsh reality can be.
-- Spoiler Warning (parts of movie added)--
And the last epilogue part is really the crux of the reality in the movie. The D-company - ISI meeting where the entire plan is hatched, with the sending of bangles to Dawood Ibrahim mocking him for not taking care of his folks, you see kar sevaks, Bombay Riots, and real TV footage in true-blue 1990s style, Yakub Memon's interview, the Paki foreign minister's "bayaanbaazi", background talks by Advani, PVN Rao, and some other leaders, all look just too realistic .....
"Black Friday" is a must watch.
Also Read -
Ramanand's Review
