This is not just about the woman's grit because she is a woman. Maybe the Rajesh Khanna bit is a little over-the-top, here's hoping that Neerja Bhanot was really that big a fan.Īside from telling a story about the events of PAN AM 73, Neerja has a lovely layer of woman empowerment sewed into the fabric of the film.

Other than that, sure, there is drama in the form of tight close-ups and use hand-held cameras. Remember we got breaks in the form of flashbacks. However, I would stop myself short while doing that, because it is about hijacked people who were stuck with terrorists in a plane for 16-17 hours. One could complain that the film could have been shorter making it crisper because after all it is almost two hours of being stuck in a plane. Shekhar Ravjiani – even before we watched the film, we knew that we have to see this man in bigger roles on screen, didn't we? Well, then that is how well the actors have done. A word here for the actors who play the terrorists, though I feel that even acknowledging the terrrorists' existence is giving them too much. Not just her, you empathize with Yogendra Tiku as her husband, Neerja's father every time he is speechless but is required to form words.Īnd of course, Sonam Kapoor has vowed with keeping it restrained and real. Her voice inflections through the film, not only in one particular scene, touch a chord. Every time Shabana Azmi is on screen, I sensed a flood of emotion that I haven't felt in a movie in ages. It has been a long time since I heard applause by audience after the film ended and it has been a long time since I had tears well up and roll away because of a performance.

Neerja movie imdb