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The basics of writing a movie review. Start with an opinion. Then, move onto a plot synopsis. Write about the actors, and then the technical points. Mention the structure of the film, and then compare the structure to other films. If it struck you, write about the music. Evaluate all the above, and then summarize. Restate opinion.

There are very few people who review movies that stray from these rules, and I am not among them. Except for now. That is because I feel the need to review this film, to talk about it, to share my feelings, but there is no way to do so using the traditional means. So, here are my random thoughts from two viewings Black Friday. I say random, because I am going to list my thoughts and not give a traditional review.

First Viewing

Friday night, 8:00 pm, Naz 8 Artesia. Driving two very excited people to the film. I am excited too. After months and months of Black Friday talk on PFC and after almost a year of hearing oz talk about Anurag, I am ready to see what the hype is about. And, as an American who doesn’t have the same personal stake in this film that so many fans across the Internet have, I am not afraid to use the word “hype”. That is what it looks like from the outside.

Discussion. We talk in the car about how the film is being compared to “The Battle of Algiers”. I am somewhat offended by this. The Battle of Algiers was one of the films that helped to shape my adolescent political consciousness. Is the cult of Anurag now so strong that his first released film, from a person who has written comedies, thrillers, and crime films, can be compared to one of the great political filmmakers of the 20th Century?

Theater. From the inside it looks like an empty theater. oz counted about 30 people. After all the talk about sold out theaters in India, it is strange to see that such a film does not bring out a larger crowd. Even stranger as I think that a documentary on the Armenian genocide sold out the theater down the street from my house recently, and there is no large Armenian population in Orange County.

Start. What an amazing way to start a film, no introduction, no music, no background, information on what is to follow the first frame, just two men, one room, a harsh introduction to the story that will follow, as well as to the Indian judicial system.

An everyday street scene, people working, people eating, people laughing, carnage. I am not blown away by the scene, but blown away at the fact that even though I know the blast is coming, and the blast is nothing special technically, the “everydayness” (for lack of a better word) in how the blast is presented is astounding. I am no longer offended by the Battle of Algiers comparisons. Bus stop, repeat. Then, the sound. I remember this sound – the sound I heard the first time I fired a rifle at eight years old. The sound that stayed with me for three days after I climbed the speaker stack to go-go dance at a Zodiac Mindwarp concert. Absolutely brilliant.

Humour. A dark topic, a violent movie, yet there is humour. Not the type that is intentionally written into a script to provide levity, but humour that shows the funny moments that exist in the darkest moments of everyday life. I am impressed by this.

Story. The use of flashbacks told within a linear plot line is done really, really well (and, I only use this word as I am afraid to abuse superlatives in this post), and way the story progresses is fascinating. OM points out that the movie has been compared to Memento. I disagree. Memento was an amazing film, but the idea of telling the story backward was an artistic decision made to test the filmmaker’s ability to do something different with an ordinary script, to test the boundaries of traditional storytelling. The way Memento was told was more important than the story itself. It is a work of art because it was meant to be. By telling Black Friday in two tracks, the investigation and the planning of the attacks in two different, intermixed timelines feels less like an artist’s trying to push the storytelling envelope and more like Anurag finding that the only way to tell the story is in this form, as if the story couldn’t be told in any other way. It is subtle, with no trace of artistic self-indulgence. At no point am I lost, which I would have been at the hands of a less capable director. A week ago I told oz that as far as I know, Anurag could just a crazy drunk with insane ideas who may be a hack filmmaker. Now I can’t wait to see more of his work – he may just be one of the most innovative filmmakers working in world cinema today.

Anger. I became angry in the scene when Tiger Memon decided to fight. I am familiar with what happened in Bombay, with the riots and bombings, but the subsequent investigations and trials received almost no news coverage here in the US. So when Tiger moves from seeming indifference toward the riots to vengeful terrorist when his personal property is lost, I am angry. Was the impetus for the bombings caused by the anger of a man who loves his power, money and status more than his community? More so than the pleadings of his sister? OM and oz point out that he funded these acts in reaction to the riots, but as it is portrayed in the movie, it appears as if he only becomes involved when it becomes personal, when his property is lost. That is more distasteful and disturbing to me than one who will fund mass death for love of religion. I will read more about him before I see the movie a second time.

More anger. I hate reading the subtitles whenever KK Menon is on screen. It means I can’t watch him. In “Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena” (the only other movie I have seen of his) he was good, but here he is remarkable. In a cast that was all around great, he really stood out. I am so impressed by him; I had no idea that he was this talented. I was thrilled by the last scene before the intermission as I could understand much of what was happening without the subtitles and was able to focus on his acting, on his face. I am angry that I don’t speak more hindi so I can just watch him.

Objectivity. Why can’t American’s make films that show Muslims and Arabs as more than one dimensional characters? Granted, most characters in American film are one dimensional, that is what powers Hollywood movies. But, I don’t know if it is the American public, the filmmakers, or who or what that would prevent a movie like this from being created here. I have no sympathy for terrorists, and a lot of my lack of sympathy has to do with the fact that I have little patience for any type of fundamentalism, and the two now go hand-in-hand. But, to be able to show terrorists as humans, with human motivations, with normal emotions, without glamorizing them, without trying to explain or analyze them away, to show the story and the effects on those involved objectively is brilliant.

I want another movie. I want to see the beginning story. I want to see Shiv Sena onscreen, the rise, the power, the riots. It can’t be done in this film, because this film was about the bombings. That said, I would also have liked to see more of Shiv Sena portrayed in this film. Since, for all the obvious reasons this can’t happen, where or who is the next filmmaker that is going to take up this thread, the new narrative coming out of India to create films like Final Conflict, Parzania, and Black Friday? From the outside, it would seem that the time is right for this type of soul searching and exploration to take place. I know from my reading that there are questions about why the victims of the blast were not represented in the film (to keep the film short). I am glad that those stories are not portrayed here, because, I don’t think that film could really ever be made and true justice done. From my perspective, it looks as if every Indian citizen was a victim, and how can that story ever be told? But, to see more of the story of who created the victims and why? I want more.

Music. Indian Ocean rocks. Will be buying a ton of their music this week. Yes, I am actually going to buy instead of download – that is how great the soundtrack is. The operatic vignette at the end is stunning. The lack of soundtrack is one of the amazing features of this movie. The soundtrack disappears during key points in the movie. As necessary as soundtrack is to film, many directors (including my favourite punching bag - Steven Spielberg) should take a clue as to how to use the quiet to allow the powerful points of a movie to speak for themselves, without manipulating the audience or trying to add something more where nothing more is necessary.

Final Thought. Despite all the praise I can heap on this film, there is something lacking. I don’t know what it is, but there is something that keeps me from proclaiming that this is a GREAT film. Last night at dinner with a group of movie-loving friends, I found I didn’t rave about this film the way I raved to anyone who would listen about Rang de Basanti the morning after I saw it. Yet, unlike RDB, I can’t quit thinking about this film. Now I know I really need to see it again.

Second Viewing

Lunch with oz. One lingering thought is bothering me. How, in a democracy that seems to me to be so vibrant and progressive, is institutionalized police violence allowed, let alone accepted?

oz suggests a title for my post, but I have now chosen not to use it, even though it is better than anything I will create on my own. This is because it is an American media phrase, one that suggests objectivity but is a politically polarizing term, and the one thing I admire about Black Friday is the fairness shown toward the characters.

For whatever reason, my response to the film today is more emotional than the first viewing. I could analyze this, but there are times for navel-gazing, and this isn’t one of them.

The use of colour palette in the film that I felt was interesting (in both the good and bad meanings of the word) on first viewing is now fascinating. The washed out blues that mark the Dubai scenes, the oranges that surround the terrorists lodgings, I like how this is done, especially as there seems to be no overt symbolism attached to the colours, just shades to paint the pictures of the characters.

The audience this time is more emotive, laughing, clapping, drawing deep breaths. Why the difference between the two days?

The reason I wanted to post my thoughts on both viewings is that I thought my opinions might be influenced somehow by a second viewing. But, they really aren’t. The only major difference is my tears.

That, and the extraneous scenes in the first half of the film are more noticeable to me. Not the ones that other Internet writers are complaining about (really, the Badshah Khan storyline is getting beat up in places, but it is one of the best threads in the movie, and one of the most human), but the scenes created to give character development to Tiger Memon and the peaceful, pretty scenes meant to offset the violence. Maybe the difference between GREAT and really good is editing.

Internet search for Tiger Memon to see if my anger at the first viewing is justified. I can find nothing on the Internet to back up the idea of personal vengeance driving Tiger to his actions. Does this mean that this part of the film used artistic license to drive that storyline? Who cares. It is a movie, and one with an opening disclaimer that some liberties have been taken. It is still a powerful and driving scene in the movie. That said, the first thing I will do when I get the book is look this up, and if it is from the book, lookup Mr. Zaidi’s source material and read that material, too.

The use of news footage to tell the details of the blast is wonderful. But, this time, while watching the footage of the displaced, I started tearing up. Everyone looks the same to me. Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Sufi, Jew, we are all human, we are all the same. I realize that four of my closest friends are from Gujurat, and I have no idea what religion they are. It doesn’t matter anyway. And, that is the point. Not the point of the film, but an important point I took from looking at the images of the real-life victims of the violence.

And, forget everything that I said about the great acting in the film. KK, Pavan Malhotra, Aditya Srivastava, Zakir Hussain, Gajraj Rao. Forget them. The true stars of the movie are the actors portraying the victims of the blasts. The man with the ashen face at the beginning of the film, asking what question, telling what story? The laughing stall worker reduced to pure, raw emotion. The dying man, searching with his eyes, looking for contact. This is filmmaking at its finest, the place where talented director and talented actor come together to create images that can’t be forgotten.

I cried on the drive home.

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