Black Friday (2004)

Mind blowing. Astounding. Astonishing. Superb. Enthralled. I could go on and put in all adjectives from the dictionary and even then I would still feel I need to say more. 1000 words isn't enough to write a review on Black Friday. Anurag Kashyap's foray into Bollywood was marred by the judiciary for more than 2 years, but finally the wait ended a few days back. And we were given the privilege to see the true potential of Indian film making. The topic was sensitive. Highly sensitive, one of the most tragic events in the last 3 decades in Indian history, an event which made Don Dawood Ibrahim as the #1 wanted man in India.

Right from the beginning, the interrogation sequence where the prisoner confesses,"Sir, bombs are about to explode in the city sir" Right from that word till the last scene where Tiger Memon says,"Mumbai mein dhamaka macha dega hum." you are glued to your seat, wondering what will the director make you see next ? The casting for the movie was in my opinion perfect. One may criticize that Kay Kay Memon was underused, but in my opinion, he was just perfect. He wasn't given much screen appearance but whatever time he had, he brought everyone to their feet. His dialogs brought the entire theater applauding. Aditya Srivastava and Pawan Malhotra were equally good, if not better. Pawan Malhotra's portrayal of the underworld don Tiger Memon was just superb. Same goes for Aditya Srivastava's portrayal of Badshah Khan, the terrorist who turned as a police witness. His struggle to escape the country, from the clutches of Mumbai police was just marvelously portrayed. A person helplessly running around the country, lack of money, being chased around by an unknown force. And when mentioning the casting one cannot but ignore Vijay Maurya as the feared Dawood Ibrahim. He was given about a couple of minutes at maximum of screen presence but even in that minute period he brought a shiver up your spines.

Black Friday is also a very good technical movie. The special effects used are pretty advanced and are at par with Hollywood. The script although adapted is superb. Every expression, dialog will make you feel for the characters in the movie.

Just remember this isn't a movie about Hindus or Muslims. At first you feel for all the people getting killed by the blasts, but later when the riots are shown, then you feel for the Muslims as well. But this ain't a movie for any of the religious sentiments. Its about the society as a whole in those few years in Mumbai. This is the type of movie that India should send to Oscars and other film festivals/awards. The world should be made known that we can make movies that will claim fame and bring India to the global picture.

10/10 !!!