Don’t just watch Neerja. Watch it
again and again. Every chest thumping pop patriot put your money where your
slogans are. To the sensitive liberal thinker: invest a few rupees and 120
minutes to share pride filled moments of this forgotten brave heart Neerja.
Just the other day I recommended that every school and teacher make it
necessary to watch a movie. Now in quick succession and as a rare professional
experience I have the privilege and pleasure of recommending the same for yet
another film. Neerja is arguably one of the best in a long long time. It is no
part of the job to plead with the reader to canvas for a film. This is an
exception I judiciously make in a career spanning over three decades.
The film starts with operations happening simultaneously at Karachi (NOT PAK
TERRORISTS) and Mumbai. While at one hand are the terrorists who are planning
the hijack of a plane from Karachi, at the other is the fizz filled Neerja
(Sonam) in a Mumbai flat with parents Harish (Yogendra Tikku) and Rama (the
Shabana Azmi) doing up a pre birthday bash for one that is destined to not be.
Neeraja takes off on the ill-fated flight after a cosy send off by boyfriend in
waiting Jaideep (Shekar Ravjiani). Even before the flight is on the take-off
mode the hijackers take control of the plane with over 350 passengers – a real
life incident. Neerja on her maiden trip heading the crew goes about tackling
the challenge. To her communities, nationalities do not matter. Human beings
do. The entire narration deals with human courage punctuated with some poignant
domestic denominators giving roots to the tale and veracity to the character.
The details are irrelevant. The narration is riveting.
Ram Madhvani, thank you ever so much for taking a slice of life and wetting my
eyes for the first time in very many years. Thanks for reminding me of what
Lincoln once said: there is no shame in tears even if it is in the
hidden darkness of a film theatre with insensitive co watchers!! Thanks for
rolling out a real tale without making it needlessly heroic or crassly
patriotic. Thanks for giving the crew its job and getting a team that knew what
it must do. Who ever said perfection makes for poor art did not know of you.
Sonam, was the big question mark. I wondered if the film maker had not made a
mistake with the choice of casting her in the title role (given her
filmography) She comes out with her thumps up. I wondered if it was Bipasha who
did Zameen who should have been called upon. NO, not this time. She is just right
and controlled. NO histrionics. No dramatics. Filmfare and Zee will not give
her an award and this must be construed as a huge compliment.
In a very appealing appearance is Yogender Tikku as the hurt dad always trying
to keep his emotions under control. Then there is Shabana Azmi who at this age
has come up with a hat trick of compelling performances: Jazba, Chalk and
Duster and now Neerja. You wonder what she is doing playing second fiddle?
Watch the scene where she packs the gift for her daughter, does a dance jig and
then suddenly turns emotional. So gradual and seamless is the performance. It
could do a Meena Kumari and a Nutan proud. She obviously chose the script for
the last punch. That is arguably a genius at work.
Some where Neerja is also an inspired tale of Elie Wiesel’s Dawn. To quote from
the master’s work: The night lifted, leaving behind it a greyish light the
colour of stagnant water. Soon there was only a tattered fragment of darkness,
hanging in mid-air, the other side of the window. Fear caught my throat. The
tattered fragment of darkness had a face.….
To go back contextually to Wiesel and the very same work, Neerja sums up what
the Nobel laureate said: The veneer of conventional attitudes was wiped off;
every word and look and gesture was naked truth instead of just one of its
facets.
Neerja is not just a film. It is a fluid essay on the human spirit. Both sides.
It is a reminder of a story forgotten. It is an Ode to courage, a salute to
credibility, a renewal with good cinema, a reiteration of human values and a
window to hope.
Rating : 4 stars
+ Script, Sonam and Shabana
– It left me with wet eyes.
L. Ravichander.