Black Friday A Classic goes unnoticed

Black Friday A Classic goes unnoticed
Tushar K Shukla

There has been a gradual evolution of a cinematic genre in India over the past few years, of the movies of the likes of Ram Gopal Verma, where we have redefined the cinema of crime, call it Noire if you will. There has been quite a few movies of this genre or rather 'school'- Satya, Company, Waisa Bi hot hail, Shool, Chhal, a lesser known but brilliant movie called Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, Ab Tak 56 etc. Black Friday is a welcome departure from this list in terms of quality of movie making and screenplay. It could be attributed to the movie being a book adaptation but I can't comment on it as I have not read the book. The way the narrative moves back and forth in time is remarkably impressive, Anurag has pulled it off brilliantly, and that gives a sense of timeless, unrestrained cinema. A few sequences from the movie are memorable, they stay long enough with you, the second interrogation scene, the chase sequence, which definitely has to be one of the best ones I have seen so far, the disillusion phase of Badshah where the movie scores beyond the paradigm of a mere gangster flick- it addresses the finer aspects of the human psyche as it reacts to a choice of a lifelong passion-good or bad, the interrogation scene featuring the assistant cop-now watch out for the awesome camera work and lights in this one!, the hotel scene between Badshah and friends that erupts like a dormant volcano suddenly came to life. A special mention for the meticulous work on the music, it simply carries the narrative to starry heights. But there are a few glitches too- a funny Dawood, some undesired sequences in Dubai towards the end that do not carry much meat. But overall, a commendable effort. I have already seen this one twice and rediscovered some altogether new aspects the second time. I think this movie has layers that lay unexplored if you lack an eye for cinematic detail. I will just give you one example- the sequence where Badshah haplessly looks at a man playing with his dog says much more than any amount of dialog or sound could have done or the never ending quagmire of the conflict between objectivity and subjectivity of the facts as they happened. Kudos!