A reflection of the society

It’s not a movie. It is more like a mirror. A mirror of our society. A mirror of human nature, thoughts and consequential actions. What Black Friday does is it makes us think. It makes you wonder what humankind has come to. It makes you wonder about the darker side of human nature and what it can lead to.

Why was Babri Masjid demolished? Why did people resort to violence to avenge that? Why did the ghastly bomb blasts take place? These and many more questions come to one’s mind after watching the movie.

The movie has been made with a lot of passion. The final output justifies that. Anurag Kashyap has done full justice to the book it is based on. The book in itself is a masterpiece. And to do justice to it was a task. How often do we see movies that stick to the book in terms of the flow, content and characterization? Such movies tend to veer in a different direction. One can definitely differentiate the book and the movie. But that is not the case with Black Friday. The movie is very much what the book is. Anurag Kashyap has in a way brought the book to life. He does justice to each and every character. He makes each and every chase sequence and every interrogation seem real. He manages to keep the audience engrossed till the end. You feel as if you are in the thick of the action. Directing blast scenes can be tricky. There is also a possibility of scenes looking like bloodbath, but so is not the case. There are dead bodies, there is blood but that is shown with some aesthetic sensibility. Even the interrogation scenes have been shot brilliantly. Using a sepiaesque kind of lighting for these scenes works well. The music score by Indian Ocean adds to the film.

What works the most for the movie are the actors. They have not acted. They have lived the characters. You can feel for each and every character. Whether it is Maria’s efforts to solve the case, Tiger Memon’s anger or Badshah Khan’s impatience, one can very much feel and understand each of them. All the actors have performed honestly and fantastically.

There are some minor glitches in the movie but they certainly can be overlooked.
All in all a movie, which needs to get its due and a director who needs something more than legal battles for releasing his films.