It is great to see a brilliant start of 2011 with a hard hitting realistic drama NO ONE KILLED JESSICA fulfilling all the expectations associated with it to a large extent. Director Raj Kumar Gupta’s second venture, after the much appreciated but inspired AAMIR, is indeed a must watch for everyone interested in some thought provoking and soul searching stuff moving away from the usual fantasy.
The best thing about the movie is that even when the viewer already knows the whole story unfolding on the screen, the film still successfully manages to impress and keeps you glued to your seats till the end. And in that process the first half of NOKJ plays the more important role since it has more pace, punch and happenings as compared to the second.
Starting with the references of Kargil War and Air India plane hijack in Kandahar, NOKL makes the impact from its first scene itself showing both Vidya Balan and Rani Mukherjee in their separate unrelated sequences. The execution of the actual killing scene of Jessica in the bar is skillfully done by Raj Kumar, which makes the ball rolling and you start feeling that you are going to watch a well made film in the next reels. Director, Raj Kumar Santoshi also used the reference of this case in his HALLA BOL few years back, but here the context is used in a more focused and bold way revealing all the hidden parties involved in the case very openly. The excellent pace of the script in its initial hour both entertains as well as enlightens the viewer about the big nexus between the rich, police and the politicians. And there are three main factors responsible for its thrilling first half. First is the authentic use of the famous Delhi lingo spoken by the people and the police incorporated in a blunt way. Second is the exceptional choice of the supporting cast by the director and his associates which works instantly and third is its spellbinding first court room scene which makes you feel like hitting all the hostile witnesses denying justice. Along with that the satire portrayed by the murderer’s mother speaking from behind the door, “Mere Monu Ko Kuchh Nahin Hona Chahiye” indeed deserves praises for its writer.
Making a good move, Raj Kumar Gupta very cleverly divides the movie into two parts giving one entirely to Vidya Balan and the second to the veteran Rani Mukherjee. The first half has Vidya Balan fighting for the justice with her helpless family and friends, coming up with a remarkable performance. And the second has Rani Mukherjee taking on the task of getting the case re-opened and then putting it to justice with the help of her media profile and channel. Honestly the second half is somehow less engaging because its completely predictable with more screen time given to all the public responses and community reaction sequences happening all over the country. The proceedings in the later part seem to be going too smoothly as if the re-opening of the case and making everyone admit their mistake in the judiciary system was a very easy task for the few people related to the media. Especially I found the media and the channel part of the film a little hushed up and not worked upon properly. Moreover the concluding hour surely could have made a more solid impact on the audience with a sharper editing towards the end.
But I was really glad to see Raj Kumar Gupta rightly showing the role played by “RANG DE BASANTI” in getting the justice in Jessica’s case. As shown in the film, it was indeed the influence of RANG DE BASANTI on the youth which triggered the Candle Light March in Delhi at that time. A perfect example of how films can become instrumental in bringing a positive change in the society.
Another plus point of NOKJ is that it never tends to be a documentary or a biographical kind of movie made on a true incident. The film is based on a perfect thriller script with a better first half preparing the viewers for a modest second. Shot mostly in Delhi as demanded by the subject it has a realistic kind of feel and Camerawork which makes you relate to the characters on the screen very easily. The Background Score and songs by the duo Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattcharya (Lyrics) are used quite minimally just as required by the theme with the “Delhi Delhi” song already becoming famous. In fact Amit Trivedi seems to have excelled himself in giving music to such thought provoking and off beat films. But giving it a second thought I really feel that the emotional part in the music was really missing and it was more designed with the aim of creating an artificial sensation on the screen.
The two main aces of NOKJ, Vidya Balan and Rani Mukherjee do win the game played by Raj Kumar Gupta with élan. However I would like to rate Vidya Balan more than Rani here, since her role neither had any amount of glamour, thrill or excitement in it as it was there in the character played by Rani. Yet, Vidya comes up with another splendid performance after PAA and ISHQIYA which is undoubtedly capable of getting her more awards in the future. On the other side, I felt the character of Rani a little over energetic, with an extra superficial kind of energy and enthusiasm than required. In other words, there is a sharp contrast in her portrayal pre and post interval. Before the intermission she looks more lively & hard hitting with all those abusive words in her dialogues and actions but post intermission she becomes rather pretty cool, deliberately pushing her subordinate in the front which doesn’t fit into one single character together. Still she strongly goes on to prove that she is in fact a veteran of the Industry and knows her job well.
In the supporting cast, as I mentioned before, there is a small gem of a performance coming from Rajesh Sharma as the investigating officer, especially in the first half. Neil as the key witness and Zeeshan as the main accused are fine too along with Myra as Jessica playing it quite effortlessly.
All together, I would like to add that films like NO ONE KILLED JESSICA got to be made and seen for the betterment of the society as a must. It’s not a kind of venture which would give you some instant big returns on the box office, but as proved by RANG DE BASANTI, films like NOKJ are surely capable of bringing more awareness in our society and may we all start taking some collective actions together before it becomes too late. From that point of view, it may not be a highly entertaining film or fun in the theater for many viewers. But in reality it’s a project by the talented Raj Kumar Gupta, which takes Indian Cinema further on the road of success and our Indian viewers need to develop a taste for such reality based movies as a must. (So that our future generation can live in a much better world around.)
And I sincerely hope that the film becomes a decent success breaking the New Year’s first week jinx of Bollywood.
Ratings : 3.5 / 5
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