Black Friday (2007- movie) : Bollywood Hindi Film

Black Friday Movie Details :

Black Friday movie is a 2004 Indian Bollywood crime film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. Based on Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, a book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings, it chronicles the events that led to the blasts and the subsequent police investigation. Produced by Arindam Mitra of Mid Day, the film stars Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava, Pavan Malhotra, Kishor Kadam and Zakir Hussain.

Mitra, director of operations for Mid Day, approached Kashyap with the book and wanted him to write a television series based on it for the Aaj Tak TV news channel. Kashyap wrote the script in episodes for the six-part miniseries but later felt a feature film was more appropriate for the topic. Aaj Tak backed away from the project and it was shelved. Kashyap then suggested to director Aditya Bhattacharya that he make it into a film. When Kashyap told him he felt there was a film to be made about the event, Bhattacharya gave it to him to direct. T

he film’s soundtrack album and the background score was composed by the band Indian Ocean, while the lyrics were written by Piyush Mishra. Natarajan Subramaniam served as the director of photography, while Aarti Bajaj was its editor.

Black Friday premiered at the 2004 Locarno International Film Festival and was supposed to be released the same year in India. However, after a petition filed by a group accused of the 1993 bomb blasts challenging the film’s release, the Bombay High Court issued a stay. Until judgement was delivered on the case it could not be released. On 9 February 2007, after the verdict was announced, the Supreme Court of India allowed its release.

The film received critical acclaim. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival.

• Directer : Anurag Kashyap
• Producer : Arindam Mitra
• Screenplay : Anurag Kashyap
• Starring : Kay Kay Menon,Pavan Malhotra,Aditya Shrivastava,Imtiaz Ali,Pratima Kazmi,Zakir Hussain
• Music : Indian Ocean
• Cinematography : Natarajan Subramaniam
• Editer : Aarti Bajaj
• Casting : Gautam Kishanchandani
• Production Design : Wasiq Khan
• Art Direction : Wasiq Khan
• Costume Design : Fabeha
• Makeup Department : Devendra Kotwal
• Production Management : Ajay Ahire,Liyaqat Malpekar,Devendra Mishra,Rajesh Patel
• Production company : Mid Day Multimedia Limited,Big Bang Pictures Jhamu Sughand,Mirror Films
• Distributer : Jhamu Sughand,Adlabs films
• Genres : Action,Crime,Drama,History
• Release date : 13 August 2004 (Locarno), 9 February 2007 (India)
• Running time : 167 minutes
• Country : India
• Language : Hindi,Urdu

Story of The Film :

On 9 March 1993 a small-time thug, Gul Mohammed, is detained at the Nav Pada police station and confesses 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 1,400 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, the bloody warring between the Hindu and Muslim communities from December 1992 to January 1993, which left over 1500 people dead. The Bombay riots were an unprecedented outburst of violence and abuse, resulting in enormous emotional trauma and property loss. Tiger Memon (Pavan 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 12 March 1993.

Asgar Muqadam, Tiger Memon’s secretary is arrested on 14 March 1993. He is beaten till he provides whatever information he has about the bomb blasts and that initiates a full police inquiry. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Maria (Kay Kay Menon) 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 10 May 1993.

After the blast, the accomplices in the crime are forced to lead a life of anonymity and secrecy as it becomes evident that Mumbai police have started picking up the suspects one by one. To make matters worse, their passports seem to have been destroyed at the behest of Tiger Memon. In spite of assurances to the contrary, the high command blatantly refuses any help to them once the bombings have materialized. Tired of being let down by his own people and without a place to hide, Badshah Khan realizes that there is no justification for his acts and decides to become a police witness. On 4 November 1993, the police file a charge sheet against 189 accused. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) takes over the case.

Then on 5 August 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.

Star Cast of The Film :

• Kay Kay Menon … DCP Rakesh Maria
• Pavan Malhotra … Mushtaq ‘Tiger’ Memon
• Aditya Srivastav … Badshah Khan / Nasir Khan
• Dibyendu Bhattacharya … Yeda Yakub
• Kishore Kadam … Inspector Bhaskar Dangle
• Gajraj Rao … Dawood Phanse
• Zakir Hussain … Inspector Nand Kumar Chougale
• Somesh Agarwal … Abdul Rashid
• Akhilesh Tripathi … Raju
• Imtiaz Ali … Yakub Memon
• Raj Arjun … Nasir Deklu
• Ragesh Asthana … Mohammad Dossa
• Sushovan Banerjee … Abhay Zarapkar
• Asif Basra … Shanawaz Qureshi
• Aditya Bhattacharya … Sheikh Aziz
• Uday Chandra … Old Neighbour at Al Hussaini
• Raj Singh Chaudhary … Mushtaq tarani (as Raja Choudhary)
• Aliya Curmally … Shabana Memon
• Suresh Dubey … Sabir
• Sanjay Gandhi … DCP K.L. Bishnoi
• Bharat Ganeshpure … Bomb squad member
• Manoj Goyal … Qullu Mohammed Khan
• Ashraf Ul Haq … Bashir Khan
• Milind Inamdar … Mohamed Iqbal
• Pankaj Jha … Anwar Theba
• Ravi Kale … Fireman Sawant
• Anurag Kashyap … ISI Man
• Pratima Kazmi … Mrs. Khan – Badshah’s mom
• Arbaaz Ali Khan … Javed Chikna
• Sarfaraz Khan … Taxi Driver at Princess Street Flyover
• Murari Kumar … Tiger Memon’s gang member (as Murari)
• Ashok Lokhande … Sub-Inspector – Nav Pada Police Station
• Teddy Maurya … Sugarcane Juice Vendor
• Vijay Maurya … Dawood Ibrahim
• Loveleen Mishra … Newstrack Interviewer
• Arindam Mitra … M.V. Ramani
• Vinod Nahardih … Nahardih
• Pranay Narayan … Imtiaz Ghavate
• Bobby Parvez … Rakesh Khurana
• Sharad Ponkshe … Anup Painath
• Ajai Rohilla … R.K. Singh
• Nagesh Salwan … Custom Officer
• Sujata Sehgal … Mafeesa Khan
• Happy Sharma … Sardar Khan
• Murli Sharma … Inspector Virendra Vani
• Jeetendra Shastri … Salim Phansopkar
• Jeetu Shastri … Tainur
• Raju Shrestha … Parvas Shaikh
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui … Asgar Mukadam (as Nawazuddin)
• Savi Sidhu … A.S. Samra
• Suresh Singh … Majid Khan
• Sacheen Suvarna … Shoaib Ghansore

Production :

On 12 March 1993, a series of 12 bomb blasts took place in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The attacks were carried out in retaliation for the Bombay riots that occurred earlier in the year. They resulted in 257 deaths and 713 injuries. Anurag Kashyap’s feature film directorial debut Paanch ran into censorship trouble and had been shelved when Arindam Mitra, director of operations for Mid Day, approached him with the book Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts written by Hussain Zaidi, their chief crime correspondent. He wanted Kashyap to write a television series based on it for Aaj Tak, to be directed by Aditya Bhattacharya. Kashyap read an unedited version of the book, which had not been released at that point, and was “fascinated” by it. He wrote the script in episodes for the mini series but later felt it was better suited as a feature film.

Aaj Tak backed off from the project after their executives read the first episode and the project was abandoned. Kashyap then suggested Bhattacharya to make it into a film to which Bhattacharya offered him to direct instead. Zaidi wrote the book following three years of research on the subject. Kashyap researched for a year including attending court to see how criminals look and to observe how court procedures work. He discovered criminals look normal and cast his actors based on this observation. The film’s characters are all real people including: Kay Kay Menon playing investigating officer Rakesh Maria, Pawan Malhotra as Tiger Memon and Aditya Srivastava as Badshah Khan, the police approver who helped them crack the case. Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali portrayed the role of Yakub Memon. To get their perspective, Kashyap also read Voices, a book recommended by Zaidi, which includes the testimony of several individuals who were arrested. He asked Devashish Makhija, who was his assistant director, to do the research. Makhija described the research material he found and Kashyap continued to write. This resulted in the script being completed in 36 hours.

To recreate several of the film’s locations Kashyap watched actual footage from the government’s Film Division, read all the newspapers describing the incident, and looked at press photographs. The most challenging thing for the crew, since the film was being shot in 2003, was to recreate 1993 when there were no cell phones or satellite television in India. The film was shot on the streets of Mumbai to avoid modern cars. It could not be shot from low angles because the hoardings and neon signs were contemporary. The crew had to make sure there were no mobile phones visible in the film. Kashyap said in an interview that he needed the city and had to “trim” it: “I shot mostly from the top angle and focused on my characters. There was a lot of guerrilla type shooting where nobody in the city came to know-we shot with hidden cameras. The police was [sic] supportive, Mid Day was at the job for permissions and all those things.” He retained the actual names of people in the film who were involved in the blast.

Kashyap shot the film without permission on actual locations. In the film, Dawood’s house was shot in three locations including Dubai and Lonavala. Because of the film’s low-budget, the crew slept inside buses at night, shot the film during the day and moved to the next location. Kashyap shot at Behrampura, the site where the actual bomb was planted, using two hidden cameras, while the crew used walkie-talkies to communicate to avoid attracting a crowd. The film’s principal photography began in October 2003 and was completed in 70 days. A twelve-minute police chase sequence in the film was improvised and shot in the Dharavi slums. It was neither in the script nor in the book. Kashyap wanted it because he felt it was boring to show normal arrests. He also wanted to use the chase to show the criminals’ background and the exhaustion of the police. Natarajan Subramaniam served as the director of photography, while Aarti Bajaj was the editor.

Release :

Black Friday movie premiered at the 2004 Locarno International Film Festival and was screened at festivals in Germany, Estonia, South Korea and the United States. It was ready for screening in India on 29 December 2005. A petition was filed by Mustaq Moosa Tarani, one of the accused, who stated the film could prejudice the case. His petition noted the final verdict in the trial had not yet been released and demanded a ban on the film until then. The Bombay High Court agreed and directed that the film not be released.Mid Day appealed to the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court’s judgment. However, the court lifted the ban only after the verdicts were delivered in 2006.

Kashyap did not feel the long delay before the film’s release would “impair” its impact. He said: “It’s a timeless film with a universal theme of religious intolerance leading to terrorism.” He said that he was getting dressed in a suit, ready for the film’s premiere on the release day, when he heard of the ban. He wore the same suit for a month and went into depression.The film was released after a twenty-month ban on 9 February 2007 on 100 screens in India, 10 in the United States and three in South Africa. The worldwide distribution rights were acquired by Adlabs Films. The film was released in DVD format on 5 April 2007 and is also available on online streaming services Hotstar and Amazon Prime.

Black Friday Movie Songs / Music :

The band Indian Ocean composed the soundtrack album and the background score, while Piyush Mishra wrote the lyrics.It was Indian Ocean’s first film soundtrack and consisted of nine tracks—three songs and six instrumentals. The album was released on 3 May 2005 under the Times Music label,and in DVD format on 15 February 2013. Kashyap said he opted for the band because he “wanted to use someone away from the pollution of Mumbai kind of music, sounds that are virgin, which have an eccentricity too”. K. J. Singh served as the sound producer.

The album received a generally positive response. Devdulal Das of The Times of India wrote that songs like “Bandey” “just re-established this quartet from Delhi as having a distinct sound of their own – something that most bands from India can’t boast of.” Bhasker Gupta of AllMusic called it a “full-blown and outright stylish contemporary and musically rich album” and wrote: “It’s rare that one hears Indian classical music amalgamated with Western electric jazz and Sufi music, and this is where the beauty of this album lies.”

• “Bandeh” – Indian Ocean
• “Badshah in Jail” – Indian Ocean
• “Bharam Paap Ke” – Indian Ocean
• “Opening” – Indian Ocean
• “Bomb Planting” – Indian Ocean
• “Memon House” – Indian Ocean
• “Rdx” – Indian Ocean
• “Training” – Indian Ocean
• “Chase” – Indian Ocean

“Bharam Paap Ke” Full Video Song :

• Song : Bharam Paap Ke
• Singer : Indian Ocean
• Music : Piyush Mishra
• Lyrics : Piyush Mishra

“Badshah in Jail” Full Video Song :

• Song : Badshah in Jail
• Singer : Indian Ocean
• Music : Piyush Mishra
• Lyrics : Piyush Mishra

Black Friday Movie Review :

This film review are Mostly Positive from Critics, IMDB Public Reviewing site give 8.5 Star Out Of 10 Star with Reviewers are 18,586.

Black Friday Movie fantastic. two things; i seen this movies in Bombay( Mumbai) where it had no subtitles. i didn’t understand a single word that was being said but i totally understood almost every scene in the film ,(except those that all new characters in them). luckily i had just read Maximum City, Bombay Lost and Found By sekula Metha, which details a lot of the events in the movie. i am from Ireland and i don’t speak any of the languages in th film. Marastaha? Hindi? As an exercise in visual film Making it was excellent. i cant wait to watch this again with subtitles

The acting was superb. deserves to be seen in the west

Critics Rating David Parkinson, from Times Of India give 3 star out of 5 Star.

Black Friday Movie Box Office Collection :

INDIA

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