I had the opportunity to see the film at a screening in Berkeley as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. Hopefully it will one day be released in India.
1. The student has surpassed the master. Ram Gopal Varma may think he is pushing the envelope, but Anurag Kashyap has REALLY done that. Make no mistake about it: Kashyap was a big part of the genius behind Satya and it shows in the writing, pacing and even in some of the shots of Black Friday 2. The film is as politically incorrect as Mani Ratnam's Bombay was correct 3. When Satya released, Ali Peter John (of Screen magazine) had a review titled 'Listen, Mr. President Listen, every Indian.' He went on to say about Satya in his review 'That's why it must be seen by every Indian who still loves the truth, by every Indian who still swears he is an Indian.' These comments are equally valid with regards to Black Friday. There is no doubt that Kashyap is obsessed with the truth 4. So enough about other films, on to Black Friday. The film has a non-linear format not because it makes the story more interesting but because its the most impactful (and nearly only way) the story can be told. The film starts on March 9th, three days before the bomb blasts in Bombay and travels all the way forward to 1994 and all the way back to the riots in Bombay in December of 1992. The movie uses the chapters of the book its based on (by Hussain Zaidi) as benchmarks.
5. If I had to classify the film I would say its a docu-drama. Its constructed as if it were part of the case for the prosecution (not my words, its in the prologue of the film). Kashyap uses real raw footage here and there.
6. One of the great triumphs of this film is that it is strikingly objective. And I do not say this from my point of view. I cannot fathom how anyone cannot find this film objective from ANY point of view mainly because the film HAS no point of view (it wants the truth). Even if one disagrees with me on this, it is, at the very least, the least subjective film I've seen on such a big political/historical event in India.
7. Kay Kay (as Inspector Rakesh Maria) is absolutely fantastic in this film though his screen time was limited (there are over 200 characters named in this film, go figure). The surprise packet here is Aditya Srivastava who absolutely nailed his character. Of course he has had minor roles in most of these films (he was Khandilkar in Satya) but I think he is an actor whose films I will definitely look out for.
8. The film does a remarkable job of delving into the psyche of a terrorist AFTER an attack takes place and he is on the run (and I might add here that its the first film I've seen to do this) Of course this is probably well delineated in the book but Kashyap brings it to the silver screen with great emotion and extracts a (as I stated above) marvelous performance from Srivastava (it wouldn't have worked without him) in the process. The film goes into the psyche of the terrorist after the attacks to help the audience understand why he would (*SPOILER*, a very MINOR one though) squeal.
9. The film has no songs but is still as long as your everyday Hindi film. The pacing is fantastic though.
10. The cinematography is outstanding. There are a couple of extraordinary sequences; one of which is a rather comedic foot-chase scene 11. The background score is also outstanding and used wisely. Kashyap uses different styles/type of music throughout various chapters of the film. I don't know who did the score but in general the rule of thumb for fantastic background scores in recent (last 15 years or so) in Hindi cinema has been 1. its done by A.R. Rahman or 2. its in a Ram Gopal Varma film. This breaks that trend.
12. The show I went to sold out as expected and at the end of it you could have heard the slightest bit of movement; there was pin-drop silence.
13. The film's best scene (arguably) is an interrogation between Rakesh Maria (Kay Kay) and Badshah Khan (Aditya Srivastava). The dialogue here deals with communal/religious violence without being clichéd. The dialogue by Kay Kay is so great that one would think that it was spoken by some great historical figure when it was actually merely written by Kashyap! I thought of the scene in Lagaan when Bhuvan gives a discourse on caste-ism when I saw this scene in Black Friday. Of course, the scenes are different but their nature is the same in the sense that the dialogue is so far reaching and that it deals with complicated socio-political issues. The scene in Black Friday is infinitely more effective than its counterpart in Lagaan. They should just give Kay Kay awards for that scene alone (Srivastava was great as well).
14. The film begins and ends with the quote by Gandhi 'An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind'
1. The student has surpassed the master. Ram Gopal Varma may think he is pushing the envelope, but Anurag Kashyap has REALLY done that. Make no mistake about it: Kashyap was a big part of the genius behind Satya and it shows in the writing, pacing and even in some of the shots of Black Friday 2. The film is as politically incorrect as Mani Ratnam's Bombay was correct 3. When Satya released, Ali Peter John (of Screen magazine) had a review titled 'Listen, Mr. President Listen, every Indian.' He went on to say about Satya in his review 'That's why it must be seen by every Indian who still loves the truth, by every Indian who still swears he is an Indian.' These comments are equally valid with regards to Black Friday. There is no doubt that Kashyap is obsessed with the truth 4. So enough about other films, on to Black Friday. The film has a non-linear format not because it makes the story more interesting but because its the most impactful (and nearly only way) the story can be told. The film starts on March 9th, three days before the bomb blasts in Bombay and travels all the way forward to 1994 and all the way back to the riots in Bombay in December of 1992. The movie uses the chapters of the book its based on (by Hussain Zaidi) as benchmarks.
5. If I had to classify the film I would say its a docu-drama. Its constructed as if it were part of the case for the prosecution (not my words, its in the prologue of the film). Kashyap uses real raw footage here and there.
6. One of the great triumphs of this film is that it is strikingly objective. And I do not say this from my point of view. I cannot fathom how anyone cannot find this film objective from ANY point of view mainly because the film HAS no point of view (it wants the truth). Even if one disagrees with me on this, it is, at the very least, the least subjective film I've seen on such a big political/historical event in India.
7. Kay Kay (as Inspector Rakesh Maria) is absolutely fantastic in this film though his screen time was limited (there are over 200 characters named in this film, go figure). The surprise packet here is Aditya Srivastava who absolutely nailed his character. Of course he has had minor roles in most of these films (he was Khandilkar in Satya) but I think he is an actor whose films I will definitely look out for.
8. The film does a remarkable job of delving into the psyche of a terrorist AFTER an attack takes place and he is on the run (and I might add here that its the first film I've seen to do this) Of course this is probably well delineated in the book but Kashyap brings it to the silver screen with great emotion and extracts a (as I stated above) marvelous performance from Srivastava (it wouldn't have worked without him) in the process. The film goes into the psyche of the terrorist after the attacks to help the audience understand why he would (*SPOILER*, a very MINOR one though) squeal.
9. The film has no songs but is still as long as your everyday Hindi film. The pacing is fantastic though.
10. The cinematography is outstanding. There are a couple of extraordinary sequences; one of which is a rather comedic foot-chase scene 11. The background score is also outstanding and used wisely. Kashyap uses different styles/type of music throughout various chapters of the film. I don't know who did the score but in general the rule of thumb for fantastic background scores in recent (last 15 years or so) in Hindi cinema has been 1. its done by A.R. Rahman or 2. its in a Ram Gopal Varma film. This breaks that trend.
12. The show I went to sold out as expected and at the end of it you could have heard the slightest bit of movement; there was pin-drop silence.
13. The film's best scene (arguably) is an interrogation between Rakesh Maria (Kay Kay) and Badshah Khan (Aditya Srivastava). The dialogue here deals with communal/religious violence without being clichéd. The dialogue by Kay Kay is so great that one would think that it was spoken by some great historical figure when it was actually merely written by Kashyap! I thought of the scene in Lagaan when Bhuvan gives a discourse on caste-ism when I saw this scene in Black Friday. Of course, the scenes are different but their nature is the same in the sense that the dialogue is so far reaching and that it deals with complicated socio-political issues. The scene in Black Friday is infinitely more effective than its counterpart in Lagaan. They should just give Kay Kay awards for that scene alone (Srivastava was great as well).
14. The film begins and ends with the quote by Gandhi 'An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind'