2k11-1st Movie..1st Review - NOKJ

First thing first about the first movie of the year, it’s not a path breaking or a thrilling movie that I expected it to be. However, it does stand tall among the recent spate of below average products that have been delivered at the box office. The movie is based on the true story of Jessica Lal murder case with an added dose of fiction.

 The expectation were obviously high with the ‘high profile’ case as the subject, 'Aamir' director at the helm, 2 of the better 'act'resses of hindi cinema as the leads and then some awesome music score by the versatile Amit Trivedi. 

The movie starts with Vidya Balan as Sabrina Lall, sister of Jessica, waking up to the news of Jessica being shot at a party on refusing to serve  drink to Manish aka Monu. The actual murder is shown in intermittent flashbacks that play an integral role in developing the character of both Sabrina & Jessica to some extent.

There is a parallel track showing Rani Mukherjee as the feisty, over the top NDTV journalist who swears at any & everyone for any reason & every opportunity …some way to portray a strong woman! This track starts with Rani (as Meera) returning to Delhi after covering the Kargil war story and being offered the Jessica Lall murder story but she chooses to reject it as she thinks it’s an open & shut case with no masala. 

The two tracks intersect and take the story forward post interval and that is when the movie picks up pace after a slow first half. The second half shows how Meera fights & starts a series of sting operations to show how several witness became hostile. There is also the RDB inspired candle lit march at India Gate and the inspiration source is also credited in the movie; but somehow you never feel the goosebumps as you did watching Rang De Basanti though one may argue that this is based on a true story and so the scope for melodrama maybe less, but I believe that the director Rajkumar Gupta could have certainly added some fiction here to create that energy rather than putting all the efforts in the foulmouthed character of Rani to portray the strong minded Indian women.

In terms of performance, I think Vidya Balan steals the show right under Rani's nose, though she also does a good job despite the undimensional character she portrays. The police officer played by Rajesh Sharma is my pick of the supporting cast. Myra who plays Jessica looks fresh. The father & mother of Jessica Lall are mere caricatures. Rajkumar Gupta could certainly have added more excitement in the script and made it as thrilling as his debut ‘Aamir’ but nevertheless deserves praise for handling such a publicized & sensitive topic with sincerity. The best thing about the movie I think is the music & background score by Amit Trivedi...certainly provides a new dimension to the film which could easily have become dull & boring if not for the electric soundtrack.

In the end, a movie that is certainly watchable and will definitely strike a chord with the audience due to the ‘relatability’ factor.