Review: No One Killed Jessica

No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ) was released on the first Friday of 2011 starring Vidya Balan and Rani Mukherji. The film is produced by UTV Spotboy and directed by Raj Kumar Gupta. The music for NOKJ is done by Amit Trivedi and the lyrics are quite apt for the story. The best song is of course, Dilli.

The movie is inspired by a true story and the controversial Jessica Lall murder case. Jessica Lall was a model who was serving as a celebrity barmaid at a party for the socialites in New Delhi in 1999, when she was shot dead by the son of an influential politician when she refused to give him a drink as they ran out of drinks in the bar.

Vidya Balan is playing the role of Jessica Lall’s sister Sabrina Lall while Rani Mukherji plays the role of Meera Gaity, a successful and bitchy reporter who only loves to do hot and happening stories that suit her profile and give her more professional satisfaction. The story starts with Meera’s (Rani Mukherji) narrative of how complicated things are in Delhi where power is everything; people are so self-centered and where everybody feels that they are somebody. In such a dark aura, it is useless to understand how things actually are and Meera has stopped bothering about understanding Delhi anymore.

While, Sabrina’s (Vidya Balan) entrance from the time she receives the sudden call that Jessica has been shot by Manish Bharadwaj is interesting to watch. Sabrina and her parents fight the battle against Manish and his powerful politician father but nothing is really going their way. Amongst the 300 people present at that party hardly 7 people first agreed to become the witness to identify Manish as the killer. But, with so much of political backing Manish was quite safe as his father ended up threatening and buying most of the witnesses to make the case useless. Besides, the police never found the murder weapon and the evidence was tampered also. Even the prime witness Vikram Singh, who was also a close friend of Jessica changed his statements in the court and things fell for Sabrina and her parents who couldn’t see any ray of hope for justice.

Meera Gaity was not interested in covering the Jessica murder case when her boss offered it because she felt it was an open and shut case with 300 eye witnesses at the crime scene. However, when she read in 2006 that Manish was acquitted, for the first time she realized that justice was denied and that a step must be taken to ensure that things are rectified. Then, Rani Mukherji’s role comes upfront when she shows the truth in a sensationally dramatic way to the viewers once again stirring an uproar amongst people. The public became emotionally involved in the case and started protesting for the injustice that was done in the Jessica Lall murder case. Candle Light March and The Middle Finger Protest were two of the most unforgettable peaceful protests held for Jessica in the Indian history by the common public and media to ensure justice was delivered to her and that the culprits were punished.

Vidya Balan superbly played the part of Sabrina Lall from her dialogue delivery to her get up, she came out as the shining star by all means. Earlier, she was quite worried when she was given such baggy and loose clothes for the character as she is often criticized for her dressing but when the director explained that this is how the real Sabrina Lall carries herself, Vidya became more comfortable in that get up. There is no denial that her character is absolutely realistic and true to life.

Rani Mukerji’s character on the other hand is a true representation of dramatic and sensational fiction, which is why she did seem slightly over on more than one occasion. A lot was said about her character’s use of abusive language to portray a bitchy, career oriented, popular reporter in the real sense but coming from Rani even those dialogues didn’t seem to come out effortlessly. Her character was formed keeping in mind 10-15 real journalists who were actually working on the Jessica Lall murder story over the years and so for anybody it would have been tough to play such a role with panache. Though, Rani did do her best in playing Meera Gaity.

The director has clarified that he has only tried to highlight how media can sometimes play such a positive role at times as it did in this particular case and helped in providing justice. He also openly said that the name of the movie NOKJ was inspired by a headline that came in The Times Of India in 2006 when justice was completely denied and all the culprits in this case were allowed to go free.

Most of the other characters did act fine in the movie. Myra Karn looked pretty decent for the role of Jessica Lall. But the lawyers acted terribly and made all the court scenes useless to watch. While Manish’s mom sounded hateable every time she said, “Mera Manu mujhay chiye kuch bhi hojaye.”

While Vidya Balan delivered this particular dialogue with so much of pain and emotions, it is hard to ignore when she said, “Kiya kisi ki zindagi ki keemat itni kum hai iss country mai...aik drink se bhi kum?”

NOKJ is a must watch as it deals with quite a different issue, touches your heart and is a great combination of truth and fiction that is executed well. The director did his bit well. Rani Mukherji has come back onscreen after sometime and in a role she has never portrayed before. Vidya Balan couldn’t have done better because after Paa and Ishqia, NOKJ would only help her in proving that she is improvising her craft and skills as an actress brilliantly well.