No One Killed Jessica

Director           Raj Kumar Gupta

Cast                 Vidya Balan, Rani Mukerji, Shireesh Sharma, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, Myra, Neil Bhoopalam, Yogendra Tikku, Geeta Sudan, Samara Chopra, Bubbles Sabharwal, Rajesh Sharma

Year                2011

Genre              Drama

No one needs to be told what happened in the Jessica Lall case.  Enough and more has been said about the case and written about it and there would be hardly a soul in this country who is not familiar with what happened in the case. Plus with the advent of the net, there are going to be enough and more hits on the likes of Wikipedia to try and understand the gorier details of the case.  There will be a little more talk about it over drinks at the local bar or over a cup of coffee.  Unfortunately this is exactly what would work against the makers of No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ) and more so for director Raj Kumar Gupta.

The challenge in taking up a controversial topic like the Jessica Lall murder is primarily the extent to which you can actually show the truth on screen.  More importantly, if there is an attempt being made to portray as close to reality as possible then how does a director ensure that the freedom of expression at no point of time is superceded by the attempt to be politically correct. NOKJ finds itself caught in exactly this labyrinth and and the end of the day you find a product that is a mish mash of sticking to the disclaimer and trying to get the whole truth and nothing but the truth out.  If you walk into NOKJ with the expectation of something similar to a Black Friday, you would be making the same mistake that I did and land up being quite disappointed.  Why could the makers not have stuck to the facts of case? Isn’t it contradictory to the very purpose of making the movie in the first place.  The least that could have been done is stick the names.  If it is OK to call out Jessica Lall and Sabrina Lall then why is not OK to call out Manu Sharma, Venod Sharma or for that matter Sayan Munshi, Bina Ramani and Malini Ramani.

Adding to the above, there is one inconsistency too many for it to be called a decent attempt.  Surprising considering that Raj Kumar Gupta has given us a very good movie like Aamir, a little over 2 years back which was made quite well to say the least.  I mean, how can you have the same TV programme in one shot that shows 3 different times – 6:24, 9:33 and 10:30 (don’t hold me to the exact times here).  And all of this is within a couple of seconds of each other.  And not just that.  The sequences of June Lall screaming “Where is my baby” or Rani Mukerji saying “Gaand Phat Ke Haath Mein Aa Jaati” are anything but convincing.  The over acting defeats the basic essence of a scene which could have been so much more poignant.  And then there is shit loads of stuff which were totally unnecessary.  What is being conveyed through a scene of a pick pocket taking off with a cameraman’s wallet or some random pedestrians mobile phone? What is the purpose of showing the Victoria memorial or the Kolkata trams? Or for that matter Vidya Balan taking a shower with her spectacles on? And I have pretty much scratched only the tip of the iceberg here.

But not all is bad.  Rajesh Sharma’s (Munjal from Khosla Ka Ghosla) performance as the lead inspector in charge of the case and the frustrations that he faces is impressive.  And so is the performance from Yogendra Tikku in the role of Sanjit Lall, Jessica’s father. Amit Trivedi’s music is fabulous as always.  The titling and the starting line, “”Everybody is a “somebody” in Delhi.  Nobody is a Nobody” give the movie a good start. There is also a beautiful shot of the mobile ringing in the middle of the night intermittently lighting up Vidya Balan’s face.  Not Vidya Balan’s best performance to date.  Last year she started with a bang with Ishqiya.  Not to be the same this year unfortunately.  I do believe however that she is a fabulous actress.  Wonder why she could not come up with the best this time.  Rani Mukerji is disappointing with her excessive attempts to play the bitchy news caster, Meera Gaity.  Someone please teach her how to smoke on screen.  A below par result from a movie that I personally expected a lot from.  5 on 10 at best is my verdict.