Women at Work!

A critical appreciation of UTV’s No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ), Jan 2011

I

 rarely watch cinema through a critical lens since for me the whole motivation behind watching a movie is shuddh time pass and entertainment. But once in a while an odd movie ends up touching us in various ways and at different levels, transcending beyond time-pass entertainment and thus making our movie-watching experience more worthwhile and meaningful. NOKJ is one such movie, which bare-bones the Jessica Lal’s high profile case in a doc-drama format. Though the mainstream Hindi film Industry of India has never been known for skillful and clever adaptation of real life incidents, there have been a few brilliant exceptions to this rule. Anuraag Kashyap’s “Black Friday’ a splendid & first-class cinematic adaptation of Mumbai blasts of 1993 while staying close to real events, comes to mind. NOKJ is a close second in recent cinematic history. 

In this overtly male biased Indian modern society when two (or three) prolific woman performers shoulder an A-budget film successfully, it’s a significant sign of changing times. That way itself NOKJ is a milestone of sorts! The single screen movie hall where I went to see this movie was packed on a late Sunday evening show! And the performances of Rani, Vidya and Myra Karn, the model playing the title role, attracted loads of applause, hoots, whistles and claps throughout the length of the movie. Vidya Balan, who suspiciously looked like Tabu, delivers a performance that re-asserts her superior screen abilities compared to her contemporaries. Apart from the lead, Rajesh Sharma, who played the role of the main investigating cop, makes a powerful impact with his performances. Amit Trivedi’s music, Anay Goswami’s cinematography and Aarti Bajaj’s editing forms the core of ancillary support to the story-telling.

Generously peppered with genuine emotions, frustrations, despair and triumphs, the screenplay (by the director RK Gupta) was taut with episodic flashbacks instead of a single long boring narrative! The court-room sequences were noteworthy for the close resemblance to real-life Indian courts. In one sequence, the judge was caught dozing off while the proceedings were underway! With no witness boxes, the court-room was claustrophobic with hardly any space for the audience. At another level the movie effectively conveys the futility of the current legal machinery and the enforcement agencies through the frustrations of the characters. It takes an entirely non-judgmental stand and restrains from overtly glorifying or vilifying the characters.  Amidst the strong tense narrative a few moments of genuine & effortless humor is displayed helping to let the steam out. Please carry a tissue, as there are moments in the movie when you might suddenly find your face moistened.  In an extremely poignant and powerful moment in the film, a walking Vidya, lost in brooding over her loss and her desperate, powerless struggle, bumps into an elephant parked on the pavement. 

A few chronological errors were noticed, for eg: in a reference to Tehelka magazine, a person is shown reading the news magazine in 2006 when the Jessica lal murder case sting was first published. In that sequence the current ‘magazine’ format was shown even though in 2006 it was published in a tabloid format! For me, who religiously reads Tehelka regularly week after week since it began its print publication in 2003, it was disappointing. More so because the whole foundation of the justice in Jessica’s case was laid on Tehelka’s sting operation! But nevertheless, the movie should be watched, not because it highlights an important political issue, but because it makes us feel that each penny and each second spent on the movie was worthwhile.

Rajkamal/1/13/2011