"Black Friday" (Language - Hindi) (2004) - Movie Review

While the movie got made in 2004, it was never released in India until 2006. It seems that the alleged perpetrators mentioned in the film filed a stay order to not release as the film would form biased public opinion against them. True that subject of this matter needs a perfect neutral grounds and the verification of it depends on how much it generates the vibes in the right way. “Black Friday” directed by Anurag Kashyap tells in extreme detailed and focused manner of the ill fated bomb blasts on March 12th 1993 which devastated the city of then Bombay and the manner in which it is taken makes us believe in everything because the film does not even dare taking sides. The incident is more tragic as the city was just recovering from the communal riots due to another embarrassing incident of destruction of the Babri Masjid in December 6th 1992. The film try very hard on not taking any stands and puts on an attempt to explain in detail how every individual in the system failed and how every individual in the very same system managed to find the people responsible, almost.

When the busy streets with the usual morning routine suddenly spins on slow motion and the sound buzzes off moving towards the lower ground of the Stock Exchange office, we realize it is no ordinary movie. The intensity after so many years needs to be banged very moment at the start. We feel it and even with all the events known, it is shocking. As one of the bombs go off, every other point in the city of maximum exposure of innocent lives are punctured and blasted by the culprits. The bomb squad comes in and is able to disable couple of those but the damage has been already done. The investigation starts and with each link leading to another, it is all opening up of can of worms and how deep is the rabbit hole goes. Rakesh Maria (Kay Kay Menon) is the police official in charge of the case and he arranges the team. He provides them the actions, instructions and executions. He is the well balanced personal who dies inside every time he needs to use brutal methods to extract the truth. He does not participate because he cannot. He does not witness it because the shrieking sound of those people is good enough to make him stay awake with maddening guilty nightmares. We learn it from the subtle distress and simple emotionless connections he makes with the screen. And we get it that this is a job draining him off, physically and mentally. But he remains focused and uncovers everything possible which goes borders off the country.

Most of the films of such kind leave the details surrounding with the manipulated people on the name of religion who are end causal in the system. Here we travel along with Badshah Khan (Aditya Srivastava) who is one of the players in the bomb blast as well. He flees to Delhi and his main boss from Dubai, Tiger Memon (Pavan Malhotra), and the mastermind behind the bombings plays golfing with his schedule. He makes round about trip to whole Northern part of India and realizes he has had enough. At the point when police arrives at his door step in his remote village, along with him, we are glad that it is done. But Badshah sees the other side of the mirror. And how Tiger Memon managed to turn wherever possible to make both him and Badshah look good. Everything happens in the name of religion. Actually it is not about religion at all. Humans hold their anger and rage which feels good when some one is there to blame for suffers. They do not care about the aftermath. The instantaneous moment makes them do the most horrific acts no one can imagine. The job of people like Tiger Memon is to make these rage and anger sustain for a long time so that the people can be manipulated and taken advantage of.

The interrogation methods employed by the police are brutal and in fact results in one of the remotely connected person kill his family and commit suicide. Having witnessed the brutality in the station, he does not want to go through witnessing his family humiliated and tortured mercilessly. But what can the police do when they have very thin line in identifying the culprits and innocent? Is it fair to do an emotional and humiliation black mail to get what is needed? The problem out here is the “greater good” taking precedence over the means of achieving it. And they have to answer every one and also battle their inner demons on succumbing to the rage and anger. While it feels like the only way to get the truth, it is not right.

The film is in the intense episodic treatment of the details and information which went back these incidences. It chains up and tangles with so many people and minds. The film runs so much detail and tries to say neutral with true facts as that of the movie “JFK” doing to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. There were all possibilities wherein this event could have been stopped. The customs officials, the police and the people who got recruited to do this who were all people with good intentions. Some where down the line, the system has created the culture of avenging. Revenge can only bring self satisfaction to the person. While they can paint all the picture of avenging their loved ones, end of day they feel good about it and that too for a fraction of a moment. It is a selfish act. But even more depressing fact is the slashing brutality is over innocent beings that are executed, tortured, raped and humiliated for a tag. A tag and a curse called religion.