"An eye for an eye makes the world blind." This quote by Mahatma Gandhi appears at both the beginning and the end of the movie. It, I think, very carefully encapsulates the film's story about how revenging an act of violence with violence can only lead to needless loss of lives.
Everybody who follows Hindi films would know Black Friday to be a film about the bomb blasts that tore apart the economic capital of India in 1993. 11 Bombs exploded in different areas across the city in a period of a little over two hours. And terrorism that today is so well known to all of us was born on March 12, 1993.
The film is based on a book by the same name and stays true to the incidents as written in the book. It starts with a small-time crook confessing to the conspiracy to blow up the stock exchange, the ministry and the Shiv Sena Bhavan (home to probably the strongest proponents of Hinduism in the country). But as is often done with warnings of this kind, it is neglected and, in fact, dismissed as impossible and hence untrue. This is followed by a meeting of the conspirators, who, rattled by their fellow member's confession, brings forward the day of the attack. And then the city comes apart as bombs in cars, scooters and suitcases explode in the stock exchange, in the middle of markets, hotels and many other highly populated areas. But this happens within the first twenty minutes of the film. The rest of the movie follows the investigation, unraveling the story, the arrests, the conspiracy and finally the motive. But if I was to talk about the story, then one may just as well read the wikipedia page on the film. What I want to talk about is the experience of watching this monumental film.
Some five hours after finishing the film, I still feel kind of a stunned silence. Stunned silence at not just the film's incidents, which are gruesome enough but also the director's treatment of the movie, which is brilliant. In fact, after a point it is difficult to separate where the film ends and where real life begins. As the movie draws to an end, a montage of images of the communal riot that preceded and was the cause of the blast flashes across the screen even as the haunting melody of Indian Ocean flits through... "Arrey rukja re bandeh..." And it is the line "Kise Kafir kahega, kise kayaar kahega..." that remains with you. Because that is what is the film about. The blast that was perpetrated by powerful men hidden in their safe houses in foreign locations, out of reach of the law, these kafirs, these faceless perpetrators, these kayars hiding their faces and using others as mere pawns to kill other innocent people.
Well, don't let me get too carried away, but thats the effect this film has on me. Coming back to the film, it runs in a straight forward fashion, almost like a docu-drama, with each event unraveled in a "chapter". There is no useless melodramatisation of situations. There are no unnecessary sub-plots. There are no extra characters. For most of the film, the chronology of the film follows the order in which the police unearth evidence and hence events that take place much before the blast or that lead to the blast are shown later in the movie as the Inspector played by Kay Kay Menon hears testimonies of some of the accused as well as witnesses. It is only the last half an hour of the film where it takes on the feel of a complete documentary with interviews and riot footage shown.
Although the film in itself is a true masterpiece, there are somethings which linger on a cinematic level much after the film is over. The first of which will definitely be the acting. Kay Kay Menon as the police inspector, Rakesh Maria, can only be spoken of as excellent. His restraint and his silences speak so much more than a lot of heavy dialogue could have. When he tells his team that noone will go home till they get to the bottom of the case makes you feel his seriousness. And when, after his team applies third degree torture to an accused, he comes back and plunges his head into a bucket of water, you can feel the cold water hit you in the face. Pawan Malhotra as Tiger Memon, the mastermind behind the attack is also superlative. His smiles are spine chilling. And his anguish when his office is burnt down is all too real. That is the scene where you can see he will not take it lying down but will retaliate. And in the final scene where he makes a case for the Bomb blasts to crime kingpins you can see his hatred, his anger at the Hindus. But behind it all you can also see his need for personal revenge. And somewhere it strikes you whether the blasts were planned to avenge the deaths in the communal riots or were his reasons entirely personal, being born from the slight to his ego when his office is burnt down in the dead of the night. But finally, in the midst of the tough as nails cop and the terror king pin comes a man who was born an ordinary man. Being drafted in on the basis of his religious views and then first being forced to run around for shelter and finally being ditched all together, co-conspirator Badshah Khan is played by Aditya Srivastava in an outstanding fashion. You can feel his anger and his zeal, his enthusiasm at the plot, and finally his despair, the hopelessness, the fear and then the conviction that he's doing right as he confesses and turns witness. When Kay Kay Menon's character tells him that God is with the police and not the conspirators, you can see his face fall and doubt creep in. Aditya Srivastava, who for a decade now is best known for his hamming as Inspector Abhijeet in television crime serial CID, shows that he hasn't forgotten acting in this performance. Each of the other characters are also well cast, and you can see the eventually famous director of Jab We Met, Socha Na Tha and Love Aj Kal in a small role as Tiger Memon's brother near the end of the film. The other things that should be mentioned are the music and the brilliant camera work. Each Riot scene or blast scene appears real. And the use of red in interrogation scenes is a stroke of pure genius. Three scenes remain with me long after the movie has ended. One is the aftermath of the first bomb blast when an injured sugarcane juice seller gets up from the ground all bloody and picks up the lifeless body of his teenage son and walks the street a broken man. The second is a long chase sequence through the slums of Bombay, as one of the conspirators are chased by a team of policemen. The most poignant moment of the chase occurs when one of the policemen are barely yards away from the accused and the acused can barely walk, much less run. In fact, he is just managing to move ahead, holding on to walls and pulling himself on. And yet the policeman cannot catch him since he's equally exhausted and can't find the energy to move to catch him. And the third memorable scene will have to be the last scene where all the major crime bosses sit around in a room as Tiger Memon delivers a memorable speech reiterating why the bomb blast must take place and what it should achieve.
However, if there's one criticism I have to make then the film could be made sharper through editing specially in the last half an hour where the pace falls.
This film, though made much before, wasn't allowed to be released as the Supreme Court feared it may colour people's judgements about the accused in the case. After seeing the film, it is difficult to see how it cannot affect one's opinion on the case, so hardhitting, powerful and real is the film. Kudos to the directors for using real names and not shying away. And kudos to him for making this film, which I can safely predict as making it to the list of classic films in times to come. Anurag Kashyap, take a bow.
Finally, the film shows to us why violence shouldn't beget violence. When violence is revenged with violence, there will be a further revenge with violence and this endless cycle shall continue. Where a simple act of forgiving would have ended the violence, the current trend can only foresee more violence. As the movie ends with Indian Ocean's Bandeh, the last words, very true yet spine chilling, are "Yeh andhi chot teri kab ki sukh jaati magar ab pak chalegi..."
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