Black Friday (Kashyap, 2006)

[kaytee]

Finally this movie gets a release. Anurag Kashyap started out very well with writing Satya and Kaun. But ever since his career graph has been on a slide. He directed a movie called Paanch but due to excessive violence in the movie the Censors did not pass it and wanted a lot of scenes to be cut. Anurag went against the Censors and decided not to release the film. Then he directed Black Friday a movie about the Bombay Blasts in 1993, this too went thru censor problems and the matters were taken to high court and the movie was not released. He is now making a movie called No Smoking with John Abraham and hopefully that will get a proper release for him.

[kaytee]

Wow surprisingly TA gives this movie 4 stars. It was supposed to have a world wide release on Friday but I guess that excluded Dubai. I wish I could get to see this on the big screen.

[X.]

It was supposed to have a world wide release on Friday but I guess that excluded Dubai.

Of course they would exclude Dubai. It's a peaceful nation that does not want to upset the incredulous Hindu-Muslim public or those absolutely, totally, completely legit businessmen some of whom still operate out of Satwa.

[sandeep]

Yup heard fab reviews, including statements like 'he has guts to make a film like this' etc... we can hold a private screening once we get an original copy...

[X.]

Yup heard fab reviews, including statements like 'he has guts to make a film like this' etc... we can hold a private screening once we get an original copy...

Yes, I wouldn't be opposed to that idea -- if nothing else than to get you Bollywood fanboys off my back for good!

P.S. "Black Friday" isn't exactly Bollywood. Ha! I rest my case.

[kaytee]

Yes, I wouldn't be opposed to that idea -- if nothing else than to get you Bollywood fanboys off my back for good!

P.S. "Black Friday" isn't exactly Bollywood. Ha! I rest my case.

Don't get this started again AK.

Black Friday is coming from a guy who has written crappy movies like Fool N Final, Paisa Vasool, Jung but he has also written classics like Satya and Kaun. My point being this is still Bollywood buddy.

[sandeep]

Yup it still is Hindi Cinema, (a better term than Bollywood) and yes, this industry does produce some excellent work currently... maybe u should take your sceptic hat of and watch some of it...

[X.]

Fucking nationalists!

[sandeep]

u gotta do what u gotta do... i gotta do what i gotta do!

[kaytee]

It's not nationalism mate, I'll be the first one to say that I hate that country and would never like to go settle down there because of the dirty politics.

Its that most of the people have a pre-conceived notion that  Bollywood only does crappy, sappy love stories, with people running around trees, and bad guys shouting over the top but they forget to see that in that mix there are also movies like Being Cyrus, Black Friday, Teen Deewarein, etc which come out of the same system.

[X.]

u gotta do what u gotta do... i gotta do what i gotta do!

LOL, you know, that makes a hell of a lot of sense!

[sandeep]

hehe as long as it gets ak to post on this thread, it works for me!!

[sandeep]

Taran Adarsh has written something genuine for a change:

'On the whole, BLACK FRIDAY is an outstanding piece of work. One of the finest products to come out of Mumbai, this one is a hard-hitting film that has the courage to say what it says. Do yourself a favor: Watch BLACK FRIDAY. Hindi cinema at its best! '

Cant wait to get a good copy...

[kaytee]

Ok the movie is out on DVD and I saw it last night. Completely blown away.

On Friday, March 12, 1993, Bombay was rocked by multiple bomb blasts in its most populated and well known areas. More than 300 people died and hundreds more were injured. We all know the story on what happened and who was involved but only S. Hussain Zaidi researched and documented the proceedings in tremendous detail in a book which Anurag Kashyap decided to adapt.

Anurag Kashyap decided to tell the story unconventionally, breaking all cinematic Bollywood norms and most importantly going against a nexus of underworld dons (or maybe he was blessed by them to go ahead with it). The filmmaker should have known that the Indian Government/Courts would not let him release this movie at any cost. Not because it showed all the perpetrators in a bad light but because they thought it would influence the 12 year long court case. But we all know that it was an excuse by the government, considering Zaidi’s book had already been publicly available for over four years. But once the case got over and the verdicts announced in 2006 the movie was allowed to be screened in India and it won critical acclaim from all over and deservedly so.

The most unconventional aspect of the film is the lack of a central character. This helps Kashyap to juggle several points of view including those of Inspector Rakesh Maira (Kay Kay Menon), Tiger Memon (Pavan Malhotra), Dawood Phanse (Gajraj Rao), Asgar Yusuf Muqadam, and their pawn Baadshah Khan (Aditya Srivastava). With the task of successfully developing all these individual perspectives Kashyap emerges triumphant, doing justice to them all, expertly narrating the stories in a reasonably well paced episodic formation.

Realism has always been Anurag Kashyap’s forte, be it Satya, Kaun, or Shool, all had a very realistic screenplay. But being on the director’s chair this time gave Kashyap the freedom to explore the realism even further. At times the movie looks like a documentary being told by the several accused in the case. Not that it is a bad thing; it just adds and gives the story more credibility. The use of grainy hand-held shots also adds to the gritty tone of the film. But to hold such a realistic story together you need superior performances which are aptly provided by a very low profile cast. The hugely talented Kay Kay Menon and Aditya Srivastava excel in their respective roles, while Vijay Maurya’s resemblance to underworld don and international terrorist Dawood Ibrahim is shocking and jaw dropping. His introduction scene is such that gives you goosebumps. But topping the list is Pawan Malhotra, who enacts the role of Tiger Memon who is subtle yet harsh, his eyes speaks a thousand words, his facial and hand expressions are unnerving and again it’s sad that such talented actors are hardly heard of in the mainstream masala flicks.

A brilliant effort by a talented and terrific story teller. This one deserves to seen over and over again and I am open to watching this again at one of our bashes.

5/5

[kaytee]

Oh forgot to mention that the film got a Golden Leopard nomination at the Locarno International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award for best feature at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in 2006.