Neerja is almost intolerably gripping – a fact-based thriller that builds up so much tension that you’ll probably feel all knotted up by the time it’s over.
Second-time director Ram Madhvani, after Let’s Talk (2002), using everything he knows to drive home his points effectively, has made a biopic very unusual in Indian films – a profoundly moving tribute to a young woman of vaulting courage.
It commands your tears, without being manipulative or schmaltzy. Undoubtedly too, Neerja is intended as a political act which condemns the ongoing, despicable spectre of terrorism, without ever losing emotional contact with the audience.
It commands your tears, without being manipulative or schmaltzy. Undoubtedly too, Neerja is intended as a political act which condemns the ongoing, despicable spectre of terrorism, without ever losing emotional contact with the audience.
Countless salaams are due to the memory of Neerja Bhanot, the 23-year-year-old Pan Am flight purser who surrendered her own life while saving as many as 380 passengers and crew members as she could, en route from Mumbai to New York on September 5, 1986.
Unconditional gratitude goes out to Madhvani who chose to reconstruct her story, and to Sonam Kapoor who delivers a tour-de-force, career-defining performance in the title part.
Indeed, Sonam is such an amalgamation of heartbreaking vulnerability and steel-strong strength that you’re blown away. It’s impossible to imagine another actress as the feisty daughter of the senior Hindustan Times journalist, Harish Bhanot. As upright and committed-to-her job as her father -- whom I knew personally during my cub reporter days -- she didn’t think twice before tackling the brutish quartet of Libyan terrorists affiliated to the Abu Nidal Organisation.
And it’s to Madhvani’s eternal credit that he portrays the characters of Neerja’s parents, with exemplary tenderness. The tragedy which the parents experience becomes the viewer’s, thanks to a rapidly-paced screenplay, Mitesh Mirchandani’s ungimmicky camerawork employed in a very impactful way particularly during Neerja’s close-ups alternating between bouts of apprehension and unwavering courage.
The reportorial, newsy style doesn’t allow you to get away. Remember when movie ads used to say, “It will knock you out of your seat?” Well, Neerja damn well does.
Apt intercuts are employed between the past and present. Take Neerja’s reaction to a maniac terrorist banging at the washroom’s door spliced to the terror wrought by her abusive ex-husband, and the similarity is vivified immediately .
Neerja’s arranged marriage to a man settled in Doha, had disintegrated despite efforts to reach an equation somewhere close to compatibility. In vain. In a sensitively handled flashback, you come close to the Bhanot family which would like her to ‘adjust’ to her husband’s demands for dowry and his chauvinistic remarks about her freelance modelling career. Agree to domestic slavery is the patidev’s mantra.
Sensibly, after a pause, the Bhanots go with their daughter’s decision for a divorce. No melodrama here, just pragmatism.
The chief protagonists are built up with their sweet and odd quirks. Neerja’s so crazy about Rajesh Khanna, that even her mother (Shabana Azmi) isn’t beyond mimicking the superstar’s thumkas. Dad Bhanot (Yogendra Tikku) is a doting sort, who has this prescient feeling that his darling girl is a ‘bahadur bachcha.’ And her two brothers are her playful support systems. By comparison, though, Neerja’s new beau (Shekhar Ravjiani) isn’t as credible, just hanging around on the fringes, like a little lost lamb - the movie’s only bit of wrong casting.
Gratifyingly, the hostage passengers as well as the crew aboard the ill-fated flight look authentic and their cameos are unbelievably controlled, be it a group of petrified kids or an NRI who tries to save his ageing mother. While the airplane is docked in Karachi for a stopover, the flurry amidst Pakistan’s airport authorities, and the inevitable, almost ‘neutral’ political stance, are recreated economically.
And correctly so. Here’s a story of a singularly brave young woman: the focus stays on her with a dagger-sharpness. At a couple of junctures, the tempo does slacken, what with the intervention of soulful background songs. Also, the end-section or the epilogue is somewhat disorienting. Never mind. These are minor flaws in an otherwise absolutely inspiring film, reminding you that a sole woman, once, faced bullets and adversity with more daring than any superhero.
The production design is in complete sync with the mid-1980s. Throughout, the team behind the film sustains a restrained and intelligent attitude. The infighting among the terrorists is seen briefly. It isn’t elaborated upon, because that would be another story altogether. Plus violence is never shown except to make you hate violence against the helpless. Such humanitarianism in filmmaking is rare.
Note, a lingering scene showing Neerja tucking into a chocolate biscuit to keep her energy going. She’s a superhero but she’s human.
Do consider Neerja as compulsory viewing.
Image Source: Twitter/sonamkapoor