"No one killed jessica" is an important movie. The storyline is a dramatized version of the Jessica Lal murder case and the events that transpired after that: a girl (Jessica) who was killed in a pub in Delhi, the sub-sequent attempts at the cover-ups and the painstaking efforts undertaken by the victim's family and the news agencies that finally forced the powers that be, to take notice and punish the guilty.
What pulled this movie through is the direction and technique. Specially the first half of the movie was top-notch. The tension in the scenes was right there at the edge. The acting was impeccable.
The second-half saw some dilution from the onset, primarily due to the awful, melodramatic and over-the-top performance by Rani Mukherjee. May what the requirements be, she still acts like a teenager. Maybe someone with better acting caliber like Nanidta Das would have made for a better candidate to play this role. However, I would say that this is as much a fault of the people that wanted the character to be this way, as the actress. Towards the end, however Rajkumar Gupta somewhat managed to get things back on track.
Regarding acting, two people would stick to the mind long after the movie ends .. First is Vidya Balan. She plays Jessica's sister Sabrina with such panache, it would be difficult to imagine others doing that role. The second one is Rajesh Sharma, the police inspector, a very Grey character who plays his part to bring the perpetrators to justice from the background. His acting is very good and one wishes to see such character actors get more screen time in good movies.
The background score and sound track are great, and help to keep the viewers at the edge. The cinematography is good throughout the movie.
The main reason why I gave this movie a 7 out of ten is that I felt that towards the end, the movie ended up as being somewhat another masala Hindi flick.
Overall, I would recommend everyone to see this movie for the subject, the overall techniques employed in telling the story and Vidya Balan. But don't expect to see an Erin Brokovich or an Aamir.
