Black Friday (2004)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Anurag Kashyap

Writers:

Anurag Kashyap (screenplay)
Hussain Zaidi (book)

Release Date:

9 February 2007 (India)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The story of the Bombay bomb blasts

Plot:

Black Friday is a film about the investigations following the 1993 serial Bombay bomb blasts, told through the different stories of the people involved --police, conspirators, victims, middlemen. |

Plot Keywords:

Multiple Story Line | Overhead Camera Shot | Terrorist | Bomb In Public Place | Blood Splatter

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Kay Kay Menon	...	Rakesh Maria
Pavan Malhotra	...	Tiger Memon
Aditya Srivastava	...	Badshah Khan
Dibyendu Bhattacharya	...	Yeda Yakub
Kishore Kadam	...	Dangle
Gajraj Rao	...	Dawood Phanse
Zakir Hussain	...	Nand Kumar Chougale
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Imtiaz Ali	...	Yakub Memon
Raj Arjun	...	Nasir Deklu
Ragesh Asthana	...	Mohammad Dossa
Sushovan Banerjee	...	Abhay Zarapkar
Asif Basra	...	Shanawaz Qureshi
Aditya Bhattacharya	...	Sheikh Aziz
Uday Chandra	...	Old Neighbour at Al Hussaini
Raj Singh Chaudhary	...	Mushtaq tarani (as Raja Choudhary)
Aliya Curmally	...	Shabana Memon
Suresh Dubey	...	Sabir
Sanjay Gandhi	...	DCP K.L. Bishnoi
Bharat Ganeshpure	...	Bomb squad member
Manoj Goyal	...	Qullu Mohammed Khan
Ashraf Ul Haq	...	Bashir Khan
Milind Inamdar	...	Mohamed Iqbal
Pankaj Jha	...	Anwar Theba
Ravi Kale	...	Sawant
Anurag Kashyap	...	ISI Man
Pratima Kazmi	...	Badshah's mother
Arbaaz Ali Khan	...	Javed Chikna
Sarfaraz Khan	...	Taxi Driver at Princess Street Flyover
Ashok Lokhande	...	Sub Inspector at Navpada Police Station
Vijay Maurya	...	Dawood Ibrahim
Loveleen Mishra	...	Newstrack Interviewer
Arindam Mitra	...	M.V. Ramani
Pranay Narayan	...	Imtiaz Ghavate
Nowaz	...	Asgar Mukadam (as Nawazuddin)
Bobby Parvez	...	Rakesh Khurana
Sharad Ponkshe	...	Anup Painath
Ajai Rohilla	...	R.K. Singh
Sujata Sehgal	...	Mafeesa Khan
Happy Sharma	...	Sardar Khan
Murli Sharma	...	Virendra Vani
Jeetendra Shastri	...	Salim Phansopkar
Jeetu Shastri	...	Tainur
Raju Shrestha	...	Parvas Shaikh
Savi Sidhu	...	A.S. Samra
Suresh Singh	...	Majid Khan
Sachin Suvarna	...	Shoaib Ghansore

Runtime:

143 min | Switzerland:161 min (Locarno Film Festival)

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | UK:18 (cut) | India:A

Filming Locations:

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Mid Day Multimedia Limited

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the scene before the first blast at the Bombay Stock Exchange, one of the extras at the right of the screen is seen wearing a soccer jersey of the club Real Madrid which says "Beckham - 23". This is factually incorrect because Beckham only moved to Real Madrid in 2003, while the blasts occurred in 1993.

Quotes:

Rakesh Maria: Asgar Mukadam?
[Asgar murmurs an affirmation]
Rakesh Maria: Sit straight! Since when have you been working with Tiger Memon?
Asgar Mukadam: One year.
Rakesh Maria: What do you know about him?
Asgar Mukadam: Sir, I was merely a manager there.
Rakesh Maria: One year is long enough to become a hood from a manager.
Asgar Mukadam: Sir I only used to keep accounts.
Rakesh Maria: But you just said you were a manager! Look Asgar, I haven't eaten anything since morning... My head is hurting and I'm hungry... If you dont talk, I will make you do so! Tiger smuggles Silver, doesn't he? What else does he do?
[Silence]
[...]

A rare foray by an Indian film maker into gritty real-life drama

Films based on books are a rarity in India. Probably that accounts for the huge amount of movies without any coherent screenplay that India churns out. Black Friday, on the other hand, is an exception, which will make any film maker proud.

The movie, revolving around the investigation following the horrifying Bombay bomb blasts, and also showing the perpetrators' lives just before and after the incident, took a long time to get through the Censor Board, and it's not difficult to imagine why once you have seen the movie. The movie tries to portray everything the way it actually happened, or at least as the book says it happened, and succeeds. Technically the movie is top league, compared to other Hindi movies, though the editing is choppy in places. The music, by Indian Ocean, is brilliant, and more importantly suits the plot. Despite the length of the movie the director never loses grip, and that's really commendable.

I haven't seen Satya (and I am sorry for that), so I am not very familiar with Anurag Kashyap's work (though he also did the dialogues, I believe, for Yuva, which I have seen), but considering the smoke he generates with every movie, I knew there had to be some fire to it too. And Black Friday IS fiery! The movie doesn't ever try to be politically correct and the director is almost obsessed with showing everything - even the correct language - which shall make it unsuitable for family viewing.

The actors, with Kay Kay (he should be getting awards for this one) and Aditya Srivastava worth special mention, do a very good job too, and I think many of them are of a theatre background, which ensures a high pedigree in Indian movies. Those familiar with Indian TV serials must have seen Srivastava in an eminently well-made series called 9 Malabar Hill from the late 90s, which also starred Pawan Malhotra. Srivastava has been seen in many other smaller roles in movies and TV serials since then, but that particular role had showed how good an actor he is, and it is proved here once more. Pawan Malhotra is also a known face in India's parallel cinema movement, though he is prone to overact at times. Kay Kay is one of the best actors to have hit the Indian screen in recent years, and brilliant performances aren't new to him.

The movie is unique in the sense that it shows the life of a terrorist AFTER the blast and how he copes with all the pressures. Then there's the pressure faced by the investigators to get to the terrorist, but taking care at the same time that they don't harm innocent people in their zeal. When I saw in the credits that the movie was based on a book by a Muslim author, I started feeling that it was going to be a biased description of the atrocities of Mumbai police on innocent members of the Musilm community during the investigations. Such a thought process is shameful, but natural in India's circumstances. But surprisingly, and thankfully, the movie, and so I suppose the book too, is as objective as it could have been without appearing sympathetic to either of the parties.

To finish off, this is one of those (very rare) movies that convince you that the future isn't all that bad for Hindi cinema. A must watch for all Hindi movie fans, and even those who normally don't watch Hindi movies because of the unrealistic gloss and song-and-dance routines.