Neerja movie review: Sonam Kapoor brings Neerja Bhanot alive on screen
Sonam Kapoor's Neerja hit the screens today. The Ram Madhvani-directed film is a biopic on India's youngest recipient of the Ashok Chakra, Neerja Bhanot. Neerja is clearly among the best films Bollywood has been able to gift viewers with in recent times.
Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Yogendra Tiku, Shekhar Ravjiani
Direction: Ram Madhvani
Ratings: 
A black-and-yellow taxi makes its way to the Navjeevan Society in Mumbai in the wee hours of September 4, 1986. Neerja (Sonam Kapoor) chats up the old driver with the famous Rajesh Khanna dialogue from Anand: "Babumoshai, zindagi badi honi chaiye, lambi nahi." In that one line, you're informed about what you already know: this is a story that doesn't end happily and you are curious about not the story but how it is told.
In Karachi, a group of terrorists begin the preparations for a hijack. The grenades, AK-47s and bullets are all packed in, a plan in place.
Back in Mumbai, Neerja, the life of the society, spends time karaoke-ing and shaking a leg to Kaka's songs at the gathering. Soon after the party, the girl goes to sleep, asking her mother Rama (Shabana Azmi) to wake her up at 1am. She has a 4am flight to get on.
Jaideep (Shekhar Ravjiani) picks Neerja up. Madly in love with her, Jaideep gifts Neerja a little something and asks her to open it only on her September 7 birthday. She will be in Frankfurt and will be able to meet him and her family only once she's back.
Soon, the Pan Am 73 is all ready for take-off. Neerja Bhanot is the senior purser on the flight. There are about 380 passengers and crew on board, several children included. In an hour, the flight reaches Karachi and the hijack drama unfolds.
Ram Madhvani has crafted a story that will move the coldest of hearts. Nothing much happens in the film, action-wise, per se. But your gut is forever clenched, you're always on the edge of your seat. There's a sense of fear and foreboding, the burden of the knowledge of what is to come. Madhvani, along with writers Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh help get an outpouring of emotions from viewers.
Quadras's screenplay is taut and keeps you hooked to the screen from the first frame. The use of flashback to show Neerja's troubled marriage is praiseworthy. There is the occasional moment when you find your patience wavering, though. Towards the end of the film, a shot of Shabana receiving the Ashok Chakra on behalf of her daughter looks out of place and could have been done better.
The story finds an able complement in the cast. Sonam Kapoor plays her Neerja with an exceptional vulnerability and courage, in a way that is not known of her. Shabana Azmi tears the viewer apart, both when she is controlled in her acting, and when she lets go. Yogendra Tiku slips into his role easily. In his debut film, music composer Shekhar Ravjiani manages to make an impression, but it is Sonam and Shabana's film at the end of the day.
Mitesh Mirchandani's cinematography and the production design deserve a pat on the back for recreating the Bombay of the 80s. Rajesh Khanna's ubiquitous presence in Neerja's life, the audio cassettes and the pencils to get the tape in place - all push you into nostalgia. The scene where an old passenger tries to fix a match for her grandson with one of the air hostesses deserves a special mention for its hilarity.
Vishal Khurana's music is pleasing to the ears. Jeete Hai Chal stays with one long after the film ends. The songs don't hamper the pace of the story.
In all, drop everything else and go watch Neerja. This is a story that everyone needs to see.
For all stories and updates on Neerja, CLICK HERE.