A Review of the Film Recently Seen by You

Films are a very significant part of Indian life. People are crazy about films in India. Actors and actresses are their gods. People here laugh and weep with them and live different lives with them inside the cinema halls. Although I am not a movie maniac yet a film has recently caught my attention. It haunts me ever since I watched it and fills me with an appreciation for it. The film is “No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ)” directed by Raj Kumar Gupta

Based on the real-life incident of the murder of model Jessica Lall (1999) in Delhi and her sister Sabrina Lall’s fight for justice, the film showcases contemporary India as it is. The mockery of the legal procedure, the loopholes in the policing system, the corruption in the power circles, and the vulnerability of the common Indian: Sabrina’s struggle powered by the feisty journalist Meera’s dogged investigation and the people’s crusade — brings life to newspaper headlines that still haven’t been forgotten.

In an eminent Delhi Night Club, the drinks are flowing and the music is rocking. Everyone is having a gala time in one of the best parties in the town when bartender Jessica (Myra Karn) refuses to give Manish (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub) a drink, it spells doom. In a rage, he shoots her point-blank. She succumbs to her injuries while being taken to the hospital

With about three hundred of Delhites who are present at the party, Manish’s imprisonment is imminent. But witnesses are bought and evidence have been tampered with, all thanks to his cabinet minister’s father. The court trial begins and ends with Manish and his accomplices being set free due to witnesses turning hostile and lack of sufficient proof. A distraught sister Sabrina (Vidya Balan) loses all hope. Meera (Rani Mukherjee), a spunky TV. A journalist who had covered the Indo-Pak Kargil war who had earlier thought that it was ‘an open and shut case determines to bring the culprits to justice and starts working on the case. The case then gains momentum with the support of the masses.

Director Raj Kumar Gupta has done a marvellous job. He has made a successful film out of a story that has been extensively covered and followed by the media. He has blended fact and fiction with precision, which has resulted in an entertaining as well as the eye-opening movie. Jessica’s murder which has been deftly portrayed by Gupta is disturbing. At the same time, it evokes fury for Manish. The film shows how people, when united and unwavering, can bring about a revolution. The use of brazen language shown in the film is palpable and never gets offensive.

The film makes one feel angry, sad, frustrated and bitter about the flaws in our administrative and legal machinery. But more than this, it fills one with hope and confidence about oneself. It reaffirms the power and efficacy of the ordinary man who can and must make the difference in a dismaying world unlike superhero stories, the film does not just celebrate the power of womanhood, grit and determination of a few. Instead, it throws light on the fact that the whole nation came together joined the ‘Justice for Jessica’ crusade and displayed how power actually resides in the people rather than the politicians and their puppets. It is a heartening message that the film throws out loud and clear.

The risk in making a film that draws its story from real life is great. ‘No One Killed Jessica’ could easily have become a soulless documentary that cuts and pastes newspaper headlines in a cardboard collage but all applause to the filmmaker and the performers for infusing soul into the film. Along with the riveting screenplay and the dialogues that hold your attention, it is the actors who grab eyeballs with their power-packed portrayals. Rani Mukherjee has won great praise as Meera. Newcomer Myra’s acting is full of life and endears her to the spectators. But it is Vidya Balan’s Sabrina who steals the show with her quiet courage, absolute ordinariness and her complete disbelief at how somebody with a pistol in his hand and power in his head could shoot down someone for a mere drink. Rajesh Sharma’s performance as the cop is also brilliant.

Thus, the film unleashes myriad emotions in the spectators and fills them with a belief in the power of an ordinary man that can make every impossible thing possible. It also demonstrates the success of the media fraternity in bringing about a rebellious retrial of the case.