No One Killed Jessica (2011)

Popularity:

Up 45% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Raj Kumar Gupta

Writers:

Raj Kumar Gupta (story)
Amitabh Bhattacharya (lyrics)

Release Date:

7 January 2011 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A journalist, who is more of an activist teams up with the sister of a murdered model, as she gets interested in the case and wants to bring justice to her case.

Plot Keywords:

Journalist | Delhi | Court | Justice | Sting Operation

Awards:

1 win & 9 nominations

Cast

Rani Mukerji	...	Meera Gaity
Vidya Balan	...	Sabrina Lall
Myra Karn	...	Jessica Lall (as Myra)
Neil Bhoopalam	...	Vikram Jai Singh
Rajesh Sharma	...	N. K
Satyadeep Misra	...	Gaurav Capoor
Yogendra Tikku	...	Sanjit Lall (as Yogendra Tiku)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub	...	Manish P. Bharadwaj
Vintee Bansal	...	Fighting Couple
Pallavi Batra	...	Newsreader
Ranjit Batra	...	Mr. Gaity, Meera's father
Mahesh Bhatt	...	Himself
Sushil Dahiya	...	R D Sir
Avijit Dutt	...	BM Pandit
Maanvi Gagroo	...	Aditi
Ashish Goyal	...	Fighitng Couple (Male)
Rajkumar Gupta
Suman Gupta	...	Young Woman Watching TV
Armin-Paul Hampel	...	Mallika Sehgal's husband
Hanish Kalia	...	Stud on the esclator
Ravi Katara	...	Young Man Watching TV
Amar Kaushik	...	Stud in the car
Jasbir Malik	...	Shyam Tolani
Vidushi Mehra
Shammi Narang	...	Justice Jain
Bubbles Sabharwal	...	Mallika Sehgal
Ritesh Shah	...	Guest at a party
Shireesh Sharma	...	Pramod Bhardwaj
Geeta Sudan	...	June Lall

Directed by
Raj Kumar Gupta

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Amitabh Bhattacharya		lyrics
Raj Kumar Gupta		story screenplay and dialogue

Produced by
Aditi Anand	....	supervising producer
Vikas Bahl	....	creative producer
Rakesh Bhagwani	....	line producer
Manish Hariprasad	....	associate producer
Siddharth Roy Kapur	....	co-producer
Shakir Ali Khan	....	line producer
Deven Khote	....	co-producer
Zarina Mehta	....	co-producer
Rucha Pathak	....	associate producer
Ajay Rai	....	executive producer
Ronnie Screwvala	....	producer
Shubh Shivdasani	....	line producer
Shamsher Walia	....	line producer: Prime Focus

Original Music by
Amit Trivedi

Cinematography by
Anay Goswami		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Aarti Bajaj

Casting by
Gautam Kishanchandani

Production Design by
Sukant Panigrahy

Costume Design by
Bibi Zeeba Miraie

Production Management
Manoj Jadhav	....	production manager
Madhav Roy Kapur	....	production manager
Satish Mane	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Archis Achrekar	....	assistant director
Anmol Ahuja	....	assistant director
Ashish Goyal	....	assistant director
Hanish Kalia	....	second assistant director
Amar Kaushik	....	associate director
Amar Kaushik	....	second unit director
Gautam Kishanchandani	....	second unit director
Abhishek Sengupta	....	first assistant director
Varun Sharma	....	assistant director
Prerna Tewari	....	assistant director

Art Department
Vintee Bansal	....	assistant art director
Dheerendra Dwivedi	....	storyboard artist
Mayur Sharma	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Sushant Amin	....	sound editor
Sayed Aslam	....	foley artist
Sanjay Maurya	....	sound designer
Sanjay Maurya	....	sound
Allwin Rego	....	sound designer (as Allwyn Rego)
Allwin Rego	....	sound (as Allwyn Rego)
Abhijeet V. Sapre	....	foley engineer
Imran Shaikh	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Suchint Mandloi	....	cleanup
Shyam Shrivastav	....	cleanup

Visual Effects by
Francine Almeida	....	matte painter
Kapil Anurag	....	matchmove artist
Arunraj	....	paint/prep artist
Aditya Badekar	....	project coordinator
Uday Bhaskar Bandaru	....	visual effects artist
Praveen Bareria	....	visual effects
Mahesh Baria	....	visual effects supervisor: Prime Focus Ltd
Archana Gogikar	....	visual effects artist
Hardik Govindya	....	motion graphic artist
Rohinton Irani	....	tracking lead
Ashwin Joshi	....	digital compositor
Anurag Kapil	....	matchmove artist
Prakash Parmar	....	prep artist
Vivek Pundir	....	line producer: vfx
Sheshu Madhav Ramagiri	....	compositor
Rajeev Kumar Rastogi	....	Line Producer (as Rajeev Kumar)
Shyam Shrivastava	....	cleanup artist
Suryaji Suryavanshi	....	digital compositor
Merzin Tavaria	....	visual effects creative director

Camera and Electrical Department
Piyush Acharya	....	jimmy jib operator
Anees Ahmed Ansari	....	focus puller
Arjun Singh Bhurji	....	key grip
Anil Chandel	....	chief assistant camera
Karm Chawla	....	camera intern
Anuj Dhawan	....	assistant camera
Kapil Dubey	....	best boy grip
Sunil Khandpur	....	steadicam operator
Jigmet Wangchuk	....	assistant cinematographer (as Jigmit Wangchuk)

Animation Department
Santosh Choudhary	....	online compositor

Casting Department
Anmol Ahuja	....	casting associate
Abhishek Banerjee	....	casting associate

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sabyasachi Mukherji	....	costumes
Taaneeyaa Oak	....	assistant costume designer

Editorial Department
Rohan Desai	....	digital intermediate supervisor
Ranendu Ranjan	....	first assistant editor (as Rinku Singh)

Music Department
Amitabh Bhattacharya	....	playback singer
Biswajit Chakraborty	....	playback singer
Vishal Dadlani	....	playback singer
Raja Hasan	....	playback singer
Felix Hug	....	musician: piano
Sriram Iyer	....	playback singer
Sonu Kakkar	....	playback singer
Raman Mahadevan	....	playback singer
Ashish Manchanda	....	music recording engineer
Ashish Manchanda	....	musician: drums
Anushka Manchandani	....	playback singer (as Anushka Manchanda)
Shilpa Rao	....	playback singer
Shadab Rayeen	....	score mixing
Puneet Samtani	....	recording engineer
Aditi Singh Sharma	....	playback singer
Amit Trivedi	....	musical director

Transportation Department
Surinder Ji	....	driver
Ravi Kumar	....	driver
Arafat Mandel	....	driver
Amit Sharma	....	driver
Nirmal Singh	....	driver

Other crew
Ashley Lobo	....	choreographer
Prakash Nathan	....	marketing: distribution & syndication
Navmeet Singh	....	location manager (as Navmeet Arora)

Thanks
Ritesh Shah	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• UTV Spotboy Motion Pictures
• UTV Spotboy

Distributors

• Mind Blowing Films (2011) (New Zealand) (theatrical)
• UTV Communications (UK) Ltd. (2011) (UK) (theatrical)
• UTV Communications (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
• Video Palace House of Distribution (2011) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Solomon Pictures (2012) (Germany) (all media)

Special Effects

• Prime Focus (Digital intermediate)

Other Companies

• Jar Pictures  Production Services (credited as Jar Entertainment)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

India:136 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | India:A | Ireland:12A | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15

Company:

UTV Spotboy Motion Pictures

Trivia:

Prahlad Kakkar was directing a film in 2006 titled "Bitter Rain". Starring Manoj Bajpai, Sonu Sood, Vidya Malvade. This movie was going to touch upon the Jessica Lal murder case. The film got shelved.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the scene where Meera Gaity is in a hospital, the board reads Fortis. It was only in late 2009 that Fortis came into existence after a takeover.

Movie Connections:

References Rang De Basanti (2006)

Soundtrack:

Dilli

Justice was denied, justice shall prevail

Raj Kumar Gupta's No One Killed Jessica is based on the true story of the murder of model Jessica Lal. The movie does not work as a docudrama but more as a dramatic thriller which is effectively fictionalised in large portions to tell a story. The story may be based on a real-life event, but it never depends on it. It does not chronicle in any way the entire case with all its real-life elements. The story is real, but many cinematic ingredients are added to make it more alluring. Rarely do pictures of this sort get made in India, sadly, while in foreign countries, this has already become a well-known movie formula. No One Killed Jessica centres around two characters: Sabrina Lal, the quiet sister of the late Jessica, and Meera Gaity, a foul-mouthed hot-blooded journalist. Both women seek justice which does not seem to be coming because the murderer is none other than the son of an influential politician.

It's a funny paradox that many times people use to laugh at the fact that politicians and other powerful figures are presented as corrupt and hypocrites in Indian movies, calling it stereotypical. And here the law is dumber than ever, and the funny thing is that it's actually the truth. A woman was brutally murdered and it takes many years until justice actually prevails. This aspect of the film is very well portrayed, and well, the courtroom scenes are just fascinating. No One Killed Jessica is a fast-paced feature which tries to work more on the emotional level. It does not excruciate the audience by following the never-ending case in minute detail, and perhaps that's where it scores the most. The movie may be a bit unsettling but at the same time it is inspiring to see how a majority of ordinary citizens take the power to their hands by just uniting and fighting against injustice together.

While watching Rani Mukherjee's strong-minded and assertive journalist Meera, her lawyer Saamiya Siddiqui from Veer-Zaara often comes to the mind, although the characters are different. She evidently enjoys playing her part, but at the same time suffers from it. I don't know if she was the prefect choice for it, frankly. Her line delivery is not that of a news presenter, and she is endlessly given an opportunity to curse, swear and insult her colleagues. Now that's not a strong character make, and at times it looks like the otherwise graceful lady is terribly miscast. Having said that and barring the fact that something is missing in this performance, Rani is still pretty good. Some of her fans may be surprised because her role is not that lengthy, and maybe that's why the director tries to make it so bold, but the actress does occasionally manage to rise above these poor attempts by honestly portraying Meera's feisty nature, her tough outside, and her soft inside.

And without the slightest of doubt, it is Vidya Balan who owns the film with her sincere and heartfelt act. Balan looks impossibly authentic in the role and skillfully captures the essence of Sabrina. Although the film does not always portray her character in a positive light, Balan wins it over by creating a simple and understated portrait of anguish, despair and courage. The film's music is so-so, with some songs, like that energetic "Dilli" song, being really fun and enjoyable and others just dragging the narrative to no end. All said and done, No One Killed Jessica is definitely not without its flaws but is still an interesting and entertaining picture. It does not always ring true, and some aspects of it are overdone, the character of Meera being the prime example. The ending in particular turns into an emotional ride which leans more on drama rather than on an actual and deep message, but in the end, it just grows on you and ultimately leaves a mark.