Black Friday - Haunting

The real backdrop of a typical hindi movie cannot be complete without these messy elements - songs, dance sequences, more songs, more dance, hero meets heroine, love against all odds and finally ending up a in a marriage sequence that can be befitting only to Hindi cinema. Many directors have time and again made it miserable for the Hindi movie audience and the mental truama associated with the cinegoer is unimaginable. But there are some directors who break the norm associated with Bollywood and come up with something unconventional and sensational leaving the audience gasping for breath. These directors can be packed to an elite class and Anurag Kashyap invariably finds his name cemented in this league of extraordinary gentlemen.

Hussain Zaidi's book, Black Friday hit the stands depicting the 12th of March, 1993 Mumbai blasts, one of the many unforgettable days in Indian history. And so did Anurag Kashyap's film based on the book was made. I refrain from using the phrase hitting the stands simply because the Supreme court of India passed a ruling staying the release of the move as it might affect the judgement in the case. This may sound ridiculous, but then we are upheld to act in accordance to the Court of Law. Anurag Kashyap has potrayed the grim realities of that ill-fated day, where hundreds of people were killed in the bomb blasts that engulfed the commercial capital of the country. Life hit a standstill as bombs exploded in all the important places in the city. The rest of the world watched with bated breath as Mumbai catapulted to one of the worst disasters of the century.

The film is all about the Mumbai blasts and the investigation that takes place in the aftermaths of the bomb blasts. Slick editing and narration, coupled with highly realistic facts makes it interesting to watch. Even the characters are sensationally real. No aliases used in the entire movie. The names are used indiscriminately to potray facts as facts. That is highly difficult considering the kind of circumstances that we live in today's society. This movie not only deals with the Mumbai blasts from the investigator's perspective but also gives a clear perspective of what the terrorists really undergo after such an inhumane attack. The director has to narrate the events from a diverse cross-section. The points emerge from the investigation department headed by Rakesh Maria, enacted brilliantly by Kay Kay, Tiger Memon enacted by Pavan Malhotra, Dawood Ibrahim, the pawns of the big guns who implement what is entrusted on them and then of course, from the lay man's perspective. The way the director juggles with the views of all these different narrative points to build a coherent structure, and breaking the boring conventional norms of tortuous cinematic sequences to build a racy encounter supported by facts and only facts leaves the audience witness the excruciating pain that hit the country on Black Friday.

The cast is held together by a set of low-profile actors, headed brilliantly by Kay Kay. When realism is depicted the way it is, the cast has to be equally appealing. Each scene unfolds to a shock and the viewer is fed with events, that gets real all along and and the viewer is in a tough position to digest the innumerable events that gets streamed in each scene. Black Friday ends on a powerful current of Indian Ocean's Bandeh, a phenomenal song that fits the backdrop of the blasts.

Anurag Kashyap hit the limelight with beautifully crafted dialogues for RamGopal Verma's realistic Satya. But jinxed that he is, his Paanch suffered the wrath of the censors. It remains to be seen whether he gets the chance to get this movie to the forefront of the Indian audience, as this is one movie that should not be missed nor messed with!!