Black Friday (2004 film)

"For other uses, see Black Friday (disambiguation)"Infobox Film
name = Black Friday


caption = Banner of the movie "Black Friday"
director = Anurag Kashyap
producer = Arjun Bagga
Arindam Mitra
writer = Hussain Zaidi
Anurag Kashyap
starring = Kay Kay Menon
Pavan Malhotra
Aditya Srivastava
Kishore Kadam
Gajraj Rao
Zakir Hussain
Dibyendu Bhattacharya
music = Indian Ocean (band)
cinematography = Nataraja Subramanian
editing = Aarti Bajaj
distributor =
released = )
runtime = 143 min
country = India
awards =
language = Hindi, Urdu
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0400234

"Black Friday" ( _hi. ब्लैक फ्राईडे) is an Indian movie about the 1993 Mumbai bombings by director Anurag Kashyap. Based on "Black Friday - The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts", a book by S. Hussain Zaidi, this film tries to recreate those events and the intense feelings that followed them.

Introduction

"Black Friday" is a film based on the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai which many believe were organised as retaliation for the Bombay riots which left over 1,500 people dead. The movie was featured at the Locarno Film Festival and received widespread praise.

"Black Friday" was not released in Indian theaters for 2 years, as on the eve of its release, a petition seeking a stay was filed by the people named in the film, the alleged perpetrators of the crime. Since the verdict was still pending for the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, they argued that the film would bias public opinion against them and affect the courts decision. An argument that was ultimately upheld by the court [http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/31black.htm] .

The film was received rapturously at previews in India and abroad. It was released in the United Kingdom in 2006 and was finally given the go ahead by the Supreme Court for release in India on February 9th, 2007, after the accused had been charged with TADA( Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act), which carries a maximum sentence of death. The DVD (Eagle Home Entertainment) synopsis contains the name of Tiger Memon incorrectly spelled and printed as 'Tiger Menon', which is in fact a Malayali (Kerala) Hindu name and not the Muslim name 'Memon'.

Plot

The movie starts on March 9, 1993,and shows a small time thug, Gul Mohammed, being detained at the Nav Pada police station, and confessing to a conspiracy underway to bomb major locations around the city. The police dismiss his confession, and three days later, Bombay is torn apart by a series of explosions leaving 257 dead, and close to 1400 injured. Investigators discover that the bombs were made of RDX, smuggled into the city with the aid of customs officials and the border police.

In turn, the film traces the motive for the blasts to the Bombay Riots, which is the term used to describe the bloody warring between the Hindu and Muslim communities in the period from December 1992 to January 1993, which left over 1500 people, mostly Muslims, dead. The 'Bombay Riots' was an unprecedented outburst of violence and abuse, resulting in enormous emotional trauma and property loss. Tiger Memon (Pawan Malhotra) is an underworld don whose office is burnt to cinders during the riots. The suffering of the Muslim minorities in the riots incites a meeting of underworld leaders in Dubai, who then take it on themselves to seek retribution. Tiger Bhai (as Tiger Memon is called) one of the chief inflamed suggests an attack on Bombay as the strongest message of retaliation, thus leading to Black Friday, March 12, 1993.

Asgar Muqadam, Tiger Memon's secretary is arrested on March 14, 1993. He is beaten till he provides whatever information he has about the bomb blasts, and that intiates a full police inquiry. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Maria (currently Inspector General of the Maharashtra Police), is put in charge of the case.The next piece in the puzzle is the arrest of Badshah Khan (Aditya Shrivastava), one of the henchmen who had left Bombay and gone into hiding, who was found by the police on May 10, 1993.

Badshah Khan realizes that there is no justification for his acts, and decides to become a police witness. On November 4, 1993, the police file a charge sheet against 189 accused. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) takes over the case.

Then on August 5, 1994, Tiger's brother, Yaqub Memon, willingly turns himself in to the authorities. In a candid Newstrack interview on national television Yaqub states that it was Tiger and his underworld associates who orchestrated the conspiracy. And Tiger Memon has now disappeared.

Cast

*Vijay Maurya - Dawood Ibrahim
*Pavan Malhotra - Tiger Memon
*Aliya Curmally - Shabana Memon
*Imtiaz Ali - Yakub Memon
*Kishore Kadam - Dangle
*Kay Kay Menon - Rakesh Maria
*Aditya Srivastava - Badshah Khan
*Pratima Kazmi - Badshah's mother
*Pranay Narayan - Imtiaz Ghavate
*Nawazuddin - Asgar Mukadam
*Dibyendu Bhattacharya - Yeda Yakub
*Gajraj Rao - Dawood Phanse
*Ragesh Asthana - Mohammad Dossa
*Zakir Hussain - Nand Kumar Chougale
*Raja Chaudhary - Mushtaq Tarani
*Aditya Bhattacharya - Sheikh Aziz
*Ashraf Ul Haq - Bashir Khan
*Pankaj Jha - Anwar Theba
*Bobby Parvez - Rakesh Khurana
*Jeetu Shastri - Tainur
*Loveleen Mishra - Newstrack Interviewer

External links

*
* [http://passionforcinema.com/category/movie-blog/black-friday/ The official "Black Friday" blog by director Anurag Kashyap]
* [http://www.cylive.com/viewContent.do?id=347 Cylive :: Movie Review/Black Friday]
* [http://www.motionflicks.com/desi/view_video.php?viewkey=77442771720a370c3c72 Movie Promo]
* [http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070226&fname=Movie+Review&sid=1 Review in Outlook]