Neerja

It doesn't always happen in bollywood that a movie stays right on track till the very end. Usually, the ill-fitted humor or obtruded songs take the starch out of the story line. I found that problem with airlift!

But this movie is almost free from all such distractions and the director has been very disciplined. Shabana Aazmi has stolen the show with her immaculate acting. I was quite skeptical about Sonam Kapoor's acting capabilities in a movie backed by such a strong script, but thankfully no emotional scenes have been imposed on her and her aptness has been used very smartly by the director!

'Aisa Kyun Maa' song is quite emotional and beautifully spun into the fabric of the movie.

The story of Neerja Bhanot is one of courage in the face of grave danger. It is a story that needed to be told and should have been told much earlier. Sonam's acting capabilities will surely be silenced by her portrayal of Neerja. But there is room for improvement. Neerja epitomizes professionalism. There are moments in the second half where the plot seems to drag. But the climax is powerful and makes up for that. Very touchy scene in which she reads out a letter by her abusive husband. Azmi, gave a knock-out performance as Bhanot's mother. With hardly any sign of self-indulgence, Sonam gives a solid performance. Good screenplay by Saiwyn Quadras. Excellent direction by Directed Ram Madhvani. Much much better than Mary kom.

"A fact of life we all die. But the positive impact you have on others will be a living legacy. Catherine Pulsifer.

NEERJA: This is a Masterpiece, a movie that's going to be kept in the league of classics. It seldom happens that a Director achieves such a finesse in his first major project but Ram Madhvani, who has been directing award winning commercials for over twenty years, defies all conventions giving us an amazing experience that reminds us of the types of Dark Knight. The best thing Ram did is to keep the dialogs in each characters' native language that gives it a feel of real time cinema. The background music creates an ambiance of tension making you feel traveling in the same plane that got hijacked in Karachi in 1986. The cinematography is so real as if you are watching the events happen live. The dark shades ensure that colors don't snatch away the tense mood throughout. The sets, the interiors, the costumes, the make up are so real to recreate the time when this event happened. And above all, it is powerful performances by everyone in the frame that keeps you holding your breathe, that keeps you getting lumps in your throat, that makes your heart beat fast and at some times makes your eyes wet. Sonam Kapoor has unexpectedly given her not only career best performance but also one of the best Bollywood has witnessed over the years. Her body language, costumes, make up, expressions, and slang all look perfectly aligned with what could be expected out of the protagonist. Shabnana Azmi as her mother nails it down with her speech in the end. She proves that art is age defiant and she still can give audience the goosebumps. And the character that despite carrying no stardom yet succeeded to leave a strong impression on my mind is that of the anger dominated terrorist who reminded me about the Joker in The Dark Knight. His intense performance really deserves an applause for it is he who succeeds in making audience feel the terror the victims might have felt in reality. Too good a movie with perfection delivered in every aspect. No way it could have been even a little better than what it is. This one is going to stay a long time in my mind. DEFINITELY A MOVIE NOT TO BE MISSED FOR ANY REASON. RATING 10/10

This movie could not have been a better tribute to Neerja.

Her sacrifice and courageous act should never be forgotten. You feel a sense of pride knowing that she cared about saving as many lives as possible on that day.

The story was well done and I have to applaud the cast, especially Sonam Kapoor and Shabana Azmi, who played their respected roles amazingly.

As a Pakistani, I believe this movie deserves continuous recognition and it is a must watch for everyone to understand why Neerja truly is India's daughter.

Thank you for making this movie!

Hollywood filmmakers could learn a few things from filmmakers in India when it comes to making a movie about a true story. The drama "Neerja" (NR, 2:02), about one of India's national heroes, is a prime example of that. This story needed no embellishments, and screenwriters Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyukta Shaikh Chawla along with Ram Madhvani, directing only his second feature film, clearly understand that. No typical Hollywood phrases like "inspired by a true story" or "based on true events" were needed. These Indian filmmakers respected history enough to tell this story as it actually happened, accurate in the film's major plot points and its relatively minor details. Hollywood, THIS is how you tell a true story.

Neerja Bhanot (Sonam Kapoor) is a 22-year-old flight attendant, about to celebrate her 23rd birthday. She's a happy and vibrant young woman, as we see during a birthday party early in the film. We also notice how beautiful Neerja is. She was a model, but her emotionally abusive husband pressured her to quit so she could spend more time and energy tending to his needs. Eventually, Neerja made the socially difficult decision to get a divorce. She then went to work for Pan Am Airlines. Neerja's mother, Rama (Shabana Azmi) asks her to leave the airline and go back to modeling. "I like my job," is Neerja's reply. So, in the early morning hours of September 5, 1986, Neerja drags herself out of bed and gets ready to go work a flight from Mumbai to New York, by way of Karachi, Pakistan and Frankfurt, Germany. Her boyfriend, Jaideep (Shekhar Ravjiani) shows up at her parents' house to drive Neerja to the airport. He hands her an early birthday gift and makes her promise not to open it until her birthday, two days later.

This is a big day for Neerja. It's her first time being a lead flight attendant, a promotion which turns out to be very fortunate for the passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 73. When the plane lands in Karachi to pick up more passengers for the next leg of its scheduled flight, four of those passengers turn out to be terrorists with the Abu Nidal Organization. As they begin to take control of the plane (which is still on the ground), Neerja quickly warns the flight crew, who at first hesitate, but then follow protocol and abandon the cockpit so they can't be forced to fly the plane. The hijackers demand that new pilots be sent to the plane, but are forced into lengthy negotiations with Pakistani authorities. Throughout the ordeal, Neerja helps her fellow flight attendants keep calm and leads them in taking care of the passengers as well as possible. As the standoff between the terrorists and airport officials drags on, we periodically see short flashbacks of Neerja's past, showing us who she is as a person, how she got to this point in her life and why she's able to remain strong in such extraordinary circumstances. On the plane, we see Neerja continually insist on being the one to deal with the terrorists personally. In doing so, she puts her own life at risk – increasingly so when she secretly works against them and as the terrorists become more and more agitated until this true story reaches its dramatic and shocking conclusion.

From an American perspective, "Neerja" is a combination of 2006's "United 93" and 2013's "Captain Phillips", but it's even more remarkable when you realize that what Neerja accomplished was through her own singular strength of character and force of will and with the help of only a handful of similarly brave flight attendants. The first few scenes of the film and the flashbacks that we see during the hijacking are well-placed and, more importantly, provide excellent character development which makes the audience feel that they are really starting to get to know Neerja as a person. The acting is excellent and the film is well-paced and not exploitive in any way. Neerja isn't shown as a super woman – just a virtuous and determined one. The hijackers aren't being shown in order to make any political point – only because they were violent men who did terrible things. The ending isn't there to make the film overly emotional – just true and factual. (Hollywood filmmakers, are you paying attention?) The great thing about this film for westerners is, for most of us, the story is fresh and new. Yes, the movie is in Hindi with English subtitles, but English-speaking Movie Fans who are open-minded enough to give a "foreign film" a shot will be richly rewarded. More than "just" a story about a famous young Indian woman, this story involves Americans in a significant way, and, even if it didn't, Neerja's heroism knows no nationality. Her actions represented humanity at its finest and should be a lesson to all of us. I'm very thankful that the Indian filmmakers responsible for this movie had the talent and the integrity to tell the story so well and so truthfully. Neerja deserves no less and audiences need no more. "A+"