What is past is prologue.
This is the sign-off that this much acclaimed film makes and it sure does send a chill down the spine of any mumbaiite who has lived through the fear, concern & aftermath, directly or indirectly, of the 1993 riots that rocked Mumbai.
''BLACK FRIDAY'', the film was SUPPOSED to be the true story of the Mumbai riots of 1993 which followed the ''Babri Masjid-Ayodhya kaand''. However, bitter truth is sure a sore to many, especially the ones who are brought to limelight with this truth and hence, this film was altered to the best possibility and the promos of the film deleted the line ''The true story of Bombay Blasts'', which was earlier a part of it. Likewise, we have every right to suspect that the film surely has altered the fact and presented a story that will partly give due respects to the viewers' sentiments and also not create any controversies that would eventually lead to the film-makers' death. We know our underworld & our politicians or what!
The film is still not released. That is because the accused in the original bomb blasts had moved the court against releasing the film, fearing it would prejudge his case. This is the first time such an incident has happened and I am not sure when this movie is going to see the RELEASED board! Hope, someday soon...
Mid-Day boss Tariq Ansari, Jhamu Sughand, JSPL are the honchos producing this film and Anurag Kashyap has done a commendable job as the Director. This docu-drama was supposed to recreate those events that are associated with the 1993 Bomb Blasts in Bombay and the intense feelings that followed them. I must say that this objective has been attained, and attained well by everyone...right from the Director to the actors and Cinematographer, N. Nataraja Subramanian.
This movie is based on a book by S. Hussain and there are reviews written on the same in Mouthshut itself (in case you are interested).
The film has Kay Kay Menon (as the Commissioner of Police), Aditya Shrivastava as Badshah Khan, and Pawan Malhotra (as Tiger Memon), among the star cast. I must say that kay kay Menon has impressed beyond words in this flick. The remaining actors too have played their roles to the hilt.
The background score sets the ambience of the film and INDIAN OCEAN along with Piyush Mishra have given a good score.
The Official website of this film is https://blackfridaythemovie.com/. However, like this film's release date, the site also is awaiting the green signal.
The film enfolds the entire story in 5 chapters and the speciality is that the end of the film is the flash back to understand the beginning. in simple words, the film works in reverse order with regards to the chronology of the events.
The start of the film is from 9th March, 1993 when Gul Mohammed is shwn in police custody at Navpada Police station in Bombay. Amidst much gore bashings and foul language, he spills out the beans about a conspiracy to bomb major locations in Mumbai city. However, the police disbelieve him only to be mocked in the face by the bomb blasts that tear apart the city, 3 days after this confession.
The series of bomb blasts shown in this film:
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@ 1:25p.m. at Bombay Stock Exchange a car bomb, operated by timer
@ 1:36pm Truck explods in green shedding area of Narsee Street
@ 50 minutes later, car explods in Air India building parking lot, killing 20 people
@ Century Bazaar Shopping Centre in worli...a car bomb that chars with it 5 busses and passengers completely So much that it left a pit on the road.
- 80 Kilograms of RDX (Research Developed explosive, made after world war2) used which destroyed Century Bazaar for 2kms range
@ 2:41p.m. in a petrol pump adjacent to Shiv Sena office at Dadar
@ 2:45p.m. Worli Passport Office, Bus no. 86
@ followed by a blast at the basement area of Bank of Baroda
@ 2:48pm on the 3rd floor of Centaur Hotel at Juhu
@ 3:05p.m. in a scooter at Zaveri Bazaar
@ 3:15p.m. in a car standing in the compound of Plaza Cinema
@ 3:50 p.m. on the 18th floor in Searock Hotel in Bandra
@ 3:55p.m. in the other Centaur Hotel at Santacruz Airport
In all, the blasts on the 17th day of Ramzan, 12th Friday, 1993 claimed 300lives & injured 1500 people. The modus operandi was influenced by Napoleon's style of attack ''Before time!''
12 bomb blasts in a day in a row destroying places like Stock Exchange Building, Air India Building, Zaveri Bazaaar, Machimaar Colony, Centaur Hotel, Searock Hotel, Plaza Cinema, Lucky Petrol Pump...
The story unfolds:
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March-April 1993 were months of Investigations & Arrests.
The first influential arrest is that of Asgar (Yusuf) Muqadam on March 14th, 1993, Tiger Memon's secretary and from there the events unfold all leading to Tiger Memon, a smuggler in silver.
Inspector Rakesh Maria (played by Kay kay Menon) and his men hunt down the suspects & zero in on people like Mushtaq Tarani, Parvez Shaikh, Abdul Ghani Turk, Imtiaz Ghavate, and Shoaib Ghansare. However, they are yet to catch up with Badshah Khan, Javed Chikna, Anwar Theba, Bashir Khan, Iqbal, Farooq Pawle, Irfan, Tainur, Shahnawaz, Babloo, Moin, Naseem, Zakir, Firoze, Mehmood.
The film then reveals how Badshah Khan gets caughts and his revealations throws light on the motive of the blasts: as revenge for the atrocities suffered by the Muslim minority community during the December 1992 and January 1993 Bombay riots, after the Babri Masjid Demolition.
The other characters shown include a man called -yYeda Yaqub Khan who keeps a large amount of unused RDX explosive hidden in the city.
The investigations proceed due to the efforts of Rakesh Maria and his men with a good amount of good fortune thrown it to keep the investigation going. Also, from here we see a few of the ill-doers turning into informers for the police, partly for the sake of their survival and partly because they realize there is no justification for their involvement in this ghastly action.
Badshah Khan is the man who fills in Inspector Rakesh Maria on the story behind the bomb blasts, right from smuggling the explosives, going to Pakistan for training, and meeting Tiger Memon.
Dawood Ibrahim is also shown in this film having a supporting role towards the Blasts.
The ''present'' part of the story ends with Tiger's brother, Yaqub Memon willingly surrendering hiself to the police on August 5, 1994. In a candid Newstrack interview on
National Television, Yaqub states that it was Tiger and his underworld associates who orchestrated the conspiracy. And Tiger Memon has now disappeared.
What they meant when they said ''PAST IS PROLOGUE'' - ChapterV :
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A little bit of flash back to take you to Bombay, before the blasts!
In December 1992 & January 1993, there was the BOMBAY RIOTS which was a bloody warring between the Hindu & Muslim communities. It was a ghastly outburst of violence and abuse, resulting in emotional trauma and property loss. Tiger Memon's office had been burnt in this.
The underworld leaders of Mumbai met in Dubai to avenge the sufferings of the Muslim minority community in the riots. They sought revenge by planning and executing the Bombay Blasts, as the strongest message.
Mahatma Gandhi rightly said, ''An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.''
All that's left now is a trial that awaits verdict...
