Black Friday on January 28

Black Friday on January 28
By: A hitList Correspondent
December 28, 2004
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Contemporary theme: A still from Black Friday
A compact compendium with nearly 200 characters. A script that took about one-and-a-half years to put together.

A mammoth project shot on locations from Mumbai to Dubai. And India’s only entry into the competition section of the Locarno film festival this year, Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday finally opens in the cinemas on January 28.

The film adaptation of the investigations behind the 1993 Bombay blasts, based on S Hussain Zaidi’s book, and presented by Mid Day Multimedia and Jhamu Sughand, Black Friday has been widely anticipated for a long list of firsts that the movie rides on.

Foremost, the “true-to-life film” in its narrative does not hide behind a veil of fiction and consequent cinematic liberties; hence the characters in the plot like Dawood Ibrahim or Tiger Memon are referred to by their actual names than customary pseudonyms.

As for imminent Censor Board hurdles, given the nature of the subject, producer Arindam Mitra says, “We faced no major problems. There were some expected cuts but they dealt with toning down violent content and usage of expletives.”

In terms of the film’s USP however, as Mitra points out, “This is reality told in a fiction format — on the lines of (Alan J Pakula’s) All The President’s Men. And this is the first time in the history of Indian cinema that the genre has been dealt with in this scale.”

Also, to be counted among the ‘firsts’ — The popular fusion band Indian Ocean, which has composed music for the first time for a film.

Also Black Friday remains among the first Indian ventures to be picked up for international distribution. But most importantly of course, accomplished screenwriter Kashyap (Satya) finally makes his directorial debut with this realist saga.

Says Kashyap, “I feel a lot of responsibility with this kind of film (being my debut).

While I am satisfied with the way the film of this scale has been executed, I am anxious about the public’s reaction. It is the curiosity over the film’s contemporary theme, which continues to impact our lives, that should drive people to the theatres.”
Know your blacks!

We cannot remember the last time three Hindi films with similar English titles appeared in the cinemas about the same time. In this case of course the common word is ‘black’. To save you from confusion, a quick brief:

Blackmail
Directed by: Anil Devgan
Stars: Ajay Devgan
Opens on: January 14
Based on: Apparently, the Joel Schumacher thriller Phone Booth (2002)

Black
Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee
Opens on: January 21
Based on: Loosely, Helen Keller’s life. Mentor (Bachchan) and his deaf-blind student (Mukherjee) share poignant moments in this song-less picture

And of course…

Black Friday
Directed by: Anurag Kashyap
Stars: Pavan Malhotra, K K Menon, Aditya Shrivastava
Opens on: January 21
Based on: S Hussain’s phenomenal journalistic account of the 1993 Bombay Blasts