Sonam Kapoor plays Neerja like she cares and that is all the role needs, feels Sukanya Verma.
We live in a rude, impatient world.
We needlessly honk our cars at signals and go berserk if there's even half a minute's delay by the driver in front.
We casually pass remarks about people from communities outside our own because of our inherent prejudices.
We refuse to respond to a person in need by reasoning we have enough problems of our own.
But in the same rude, impatient, world where apathy abounds also exist heroes who think beyond themselves and make sacrifices so enormous, it fills the heart with awe and wonder.
Neerja is a fond tribute to one such forgotten hero and a gentle appeal for decency and daring.
It is only when hurdles are high and hope seems feeble, a challenge appears to make a difference.
This is the story of a bright and beautiful Indian airhostess named Neerja Bhanot who died in the line of duty rescuing her passengers during the 1986 hijack of Pan Am flight 73 in Karachi. She was only two days away from celebrating her 23rd birthday.
Honours like India's Ashok Chakra and Pakistan's Tamgha-e-Insaniyat were bestowed upon her posthumously to mark her act of courage.
But the reason why the film moved me so much, despite some issues, is because of the emotionality it weaves around Neerja -- simply 'laado' to her doting parents -- before that ill-fated hour.
Director Ram Madhvani and writer Saiwyn Quadras create scenes of a cosy, authentic Punjabi household to economically but effectively establish Neerja's charmed life.
The happy-go-lucky Rajesh Khanna fan quotes from Anand, breaks into robot dance with a bunch of kids in her building, cuddles up to her Pomeranian Micky and sticks her tongue out on being teased 'Aunty lag rahi hai' by brothers (as they usually do), who are secretly appreciative of their baby sister's brand new ad on television.
Sonam Kapoor's lovely introduction scene, attending an on-going revelry at Mahim's Navjeevan Society (just a few minutes walk from Rediff.com's office) in an outfit quite like the one I saw on the real Neerja in archived pictures, took me back to those simpler times of disarming middle-class neighbourhoods, DJ-free celebrations -- when residential complexes were addressed as 'colony' and how even a loving stroke of hair from the colony's star 'Didi' would make us blush and feel proud.
Ultimately this is what matters the most, given how invested you feel in Neerja's ordinary dreams.
In contrast, Madhvani clinically observes the dark schemes of the four ANO (Abu Nidal Organisation) hijackers before they board the plane and trigger plausible panic.
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