‘No One Killed Jessica’ is based on a real story. Jessica Lal’s murder case in 1999 stirs the nation. Newspaper, news channels, magazine cover the story as exclusive report but hardly one is aware of its outcome but NOKL reveals the end.
Real life incident always inspires filmmaker to make a film based on the issue but few succeed to convert reality into celluloid efficiently. But Rajkumar Gupta is one among those few directors that has been able to bring justice to the real story. Gupta has brought life to the story of Jessica Lal's murder case.
He went through the root of the story and captured the reality. Gupta does complete justice to the case and able to hold the interest of the audience till the end.
Jessica Lal (Myra Karn), a waitress of Delhi Night club least knows that her life would come to an end just that she said no to offer any more drink to a powerful politician son Manish (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub). The club closed when Manish asked for one more drink to Jessica. When Jessica refused to serve any more drink to Manish, he pointed his gun towards Jessica Lal and shot her in the witness of 300 guests.
Out of fear, no one bother to revolt the incident and being the son of a powerful political, Manish walked out. Life was as usual for Manish. Jessica Lal’s family could do nothing except crying over the death of Jessica. Postmortem reports were mishandled, evidences were rubbed and witnesses were purchased with money. It seems life has no value over money. Jessica’s sister Sabrina (Vidya Balan) lost all hopes to bring justice to his dead sister, she could do nothing.
Meera (Rani Mukherjee), a spirited TV journalist was busy with Kargil war coverage when the entire incident took place and least gave importance to the case. She thought it was an open case and shut case. But when she gone though the case, she was shocked to know how the case was mishandled. Meera determined to bring justice to the family and she moved on. She was not alone in this journey of truth and justice, general public hold her hand and she moved forward with their support.
It was not an easy film to make because people already had some knowledge about it and it required extensive research. It was a sensitive issue and slight changes in the script might have proved fatal. But Rajkumar Gupta has kept a balance of everything and delivered a wonderful film which has full of thrill, energy, grip and entertaining value.
The first half is just ok but the second half is more captivating. The dialogues are very convincing and touchy. Though there is a little scope for music, Amit Trivedi's music is situational and justifies the situation. Aarti Bajaj's editing is fine. Anay Goswami's cinematography is highly appreciable.
Speaking about performances, Rani Mukherjee has delivered her best. She justifies the role of a journalist. Vidya Balan too deserves huge round of applause. She has portrayed her role very well, specially her confrontation scene with Rani. Myra is too good; she can create a niche in Bollywood. Neil Bhoopalam is ok. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub is incredible. Every time he appears on the screen, you feel like hitting him.
’No One Killed Jessica’ is a well made film, very convincing. It leaves an impression for a long period after stepping out of the theatre. The film has done full justice to the Jessica Lal case. Do not miss it.
