Rating : 4.5/5
Genre : Drama/Bio-pic
Year : 2016
Running time : 1 hour 42 minutes
Director : Ram Madhvani
Cast : Shabana Azmi, Sonam Kapoor, Tikku
Kid rating: PG-13
Neerja is based on the real-life story of courageous airflight purser
Neerja Bhanot, who helped rescue most of the passengers aboard her
hijacked plane. She died in the process.
This happened in 1986, the pre-internet era, when the news was
gleaned via newspapers and emails had yet to replace the handwritten
letter. I was a child then, and I don’t have clear memories of this
incident although it must have been all over the newspapers. After
seeing the film, I’m amazed that it took so long to make a movie on this
brave young woman!
There are no unexpected twists and turns in this film, because we
know of Neerja’s story, but I was taken quite by surprise at the
excellent quality of the film. Neerja is so realistic. The film starts
off showing Neerja’s middle-class neighborhood, and her loving family. I
identified with their life. In her parents I saw shades of mine. In one
of the scenes, her brother teases her, saying she looks like “such an
aunty”, a typical brotherly thing to say.
The impact of the film comes from its portrayal of events in gritty
detail. There’s Neerja herself, of course, but then there are also her
flight crew, the pilots and the stewardesses, the passengers. Each of
them is humanized, and given a personality (as much of that as
possible). The film details out Neerja’s personality as a good person,
who’s had a traumatic past (a marriage), but is surrounded by loving
family and looking forward to a hopeful future. To see it cut short so
tragically, is immensely saddening. I wept buckets.
Neerja has a magnificent cast, with Shabana Azmi leading. As Neerja’s
mother Rama, she is superb. Neerja is her lamb, her precious daughter,
and she showers her with love. When news of the hijacking filters in,
she is dumbstruck, for a few seconds too dazed to know what she is
doing. Also Sonam, whom I’ve always thought a fine actress, is really
very good here.
This is an incredible film. Do go see.