The name Neerja means, the Lotus. Symbolically Lotus is associated with rebirth in Egypt. This is a consequence of it supposedly retracting into the water at the night, and emerging a fresh in the Sun the next day. Her character in the real life ensembles to reflect the same. We all by now have known Neerja Bhanot & her bravery, but this bravery needed a perfect homage in the hearts of this generation. Ram Madhvani succeeds in this attempt and celebrates Neerja's bravery over the silver screen with a million viewers walking out of the hall carrying a heavy heart. The facts about the Pan Am flight hijack and Neerja's courage, which saved 359 passengers off 379 is given and written all over, but the question was, will Sonam Kapoor be able to define Neerja?? The answer to this has come out to be a BIG YES with flying colors.
''Babumushai, Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi'', a dialogue from the movie Anand, happens to be her favorite movie starring Rajesh Khanna. There are very few but strong enough points in her life that became the reasons for which we know her today. No soul can stand until it falls once. The director skilfully takes us to those wrenched parts of her life, which made her feel very low, and during these low times, how her family had been the moral as well as mental support to her. The timeline where the director has placed these scenes strikes the perfect chord and makes the character and her actions more believable. Else, this would seem un-natural and though the bravery demands the respect, it would have killed the motive. The movie picks up 2 hours prior to her last flight Pan Am. Like just another ordinary day Neerja getting ready to board the flight and departs from her home, demanding a Yellow Salwaar on her 23rd Birthday which she would be not able to celebrate with her family, as she would be on the flight starting from Delhi to Karachi to Frankfurt to Newyork. The hijackers invade the flight once it reaches Karachi, and the havoc begins. The turmoil conditions have been cautiously created, and more cautious is Neerja to deal with it. The petty things which proved to be a brilliant decision all fell in the right place and right time, ungratefully things went wrong with Neerja.
Till the last breath she held on to be brave, and her example of bravery is still inspiring the newbies. The terror when you put yourself into the situation, is fearsome. In such a havoc only thing that comes to our mind remotely is Help me, but for Neerja this was the post thinking, she put the lives of everyone aboard before her, and did the justice to the lives of 359 passengers. She could do little for her family but a lot to her country. Shabana Azmi playing Neerja's mother, portrays the affection and the sorrow in a defying manner and speaks the unspoken bravery of her child. How she never envisioned that she had a brave child, whom she never tutted to be one. Instead she always insisted her to be a self-centered, but to her utter surprise, Neerja had out done her daughter.
Last word:
This weekend pays the tribute to her bravery. A must watch, and a heartbreaking positive movie. The powerful storyline & Sonam's performance gives a perfect homage to Neerja. #Respect
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