19th February 2016 is a busy Friday with too many films releasing the same day. One of these films include Neerja, which is directed by Ram Madhvani and produced by Atul Kasbekar under the known banner Fox Star Studios. The film has Sonam Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Shekhar Ravjiani and Yogendra Tiku as the lead roles. The film is inspired by the real incident of Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking at Karachi Airport when the flight was all set to take off to Frankfurt in Germany and finally to New York. The film has the music by Vishal Khurana and the Cinematography is carried out by Mitesh Mirchandani whereas it was edited by Monisha R Baldaw. Now, let us dig in deep into the film to get the crux of the same as under:
Neerja Plot
As said, the film is inspired by a real time incident of Neerja Bhanot of 1986 when the said flight was hijacked by four armed Palestinian men of the dreaded terrorist group called Abu Nidal Organization. They wanted to fly to Israel to get the imprisoned terrorists of Palestine by pressurizing America, however, their plan was foiled by the daring rescue attempt hatched by Neerja who was the senior pursuer at the said flight. She left no stone unturned to save the lives of 361 people on the flight as she opened up the emergency door at the cockpit and allowed the passengers to escape. However, she was shot dead when she was trying to shield two kids by the dreaded terrorists. Her heroic feat was appreciated by one and all in the international community.
Neerja Review
The script is simply flawless thanks to the decent performances of the lead actors especially Shabana Azmibut Sonam Kapoor seemed similar to what she was. The film was presented before the audience with certain amount of melodrama, which perhaps has hampered the real incidences taking place three decades before. The director has worked had to create a real kind of locations around, which gives the feel in a right proportion, however, amidst scenarios, Sonam had dejected with her average performance unlike her previous movies.
Nevertheless, she has nothing to worry as she knows; others can manage and make things proportionate to boost up the entertainment value. The film seemed too predictable for the obvious reasons of knowing the story beforehand, however, the melodrama and things done overtly can be a problem and you never known some historian or the fans of Neerja would stand up against the film and start claiming that the director had tried to play with the facts. Anyway, talking about the performances of other actors particularly of Shabana Azmi, seemed to be par for what she is known for. Others too remained okay in the film.
Now talking about the direction, screenplay, editing and other technical elements, these seemed par as expected from any good and content based biopic films. The director needs special recognition for adding loads of efforts in order to embark with competitive results, which he has managed to find over the silver screen. However, his choice of Sonam Kapoor seems to have hampered his efforts in many ways. The other technical elements like editing, screenplay, music and other stuff remained par increasing the entertainment value of the film.
Neerja Review – The last word
Neerja essentially a decent movie showcasing the life of a lady on the flight who saved the life of many people on the board, but it is also pitted with melodrama, which at times become difficult for the audience. Also, the choice of lead stars should have gone better, which has created a kind of vacuum in the film. In other terms the film is good, which may attract audience to explore about the heroic lady covered in the film.
