Black Friday gets good press in US

Washington, Feb 11 (IANS) Black Friday, Anurag Kashyap's controversial depiction of the 1993 Hindu-Muslim riots and bombings in Mumbai, has won good reviews from mainstream American movie critics.

In a rave review to the film, The New York Times describes it as "an exhaustive, exhausting, often moving thriller - a work of angry humanism that spreads both condemnation and empathy around democratically."

"Epic and raw, 'Black Friday' is cut from the same bloody cloth as 'Salvador ' and 'Munich'," said Matt Zoller Seitz in a review titled 'Madness in Mumbai'.

"Although it's a period piece set in 1993, its subject matter couldn't be more urgent: how religious hatred (in this case, between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority) manifested itself in institutionalised discrimination, race rioting and ultimately a series of terrorist bombings by Muslim guerrillas that killed 257 people in Mumbai, the nation's financial and filmmaking capital."

"...While "Black Friday" is propulsive and passionate throughout its 143-minute running time, it's never irresponsible," the influential American daily said.

"Its sophisticated structure mixes shocking, agitprop-inflected imagery (disfigured bombing victims, police torture of suspects); cool-headed police procedural details; and documentary devices (including numbered, white-on-black chapter titles and a nonlinear structure that spends the entire second half explaining the origins of the bombers' alienation), it added.

A little less upbeat, The Los Angeles Times suggests the film goes over the heads of non-Indian viewers noting, "The thriller/police procedural/political movie undoubtedly has resonance for its intended Indian audience that others will strain to detect."

"It's possible that the invocation of the name 'Tiger Memon' may inspire 'Osama bin Laden'-like revulsion in those familiar with the story, but for those out of the loop, it's hard to track characters and events, especially with the film's jumbled chronology," it says.

"TV Guide" is a little more understanding noting, "The film assumes knowledge of the bombings (which took place shortly after the first attack on the WTC) and familiarity with various Indian and Pakistani law-enforcement organisations that few Americans have at their fingertips. But in the aftermath of 9/11, its assertion that religious terrorism is about more than simply faith is food for thought," says critic Maitland McDonagh.

"Filmiholic" gives a long summary of the movie with a positive review describing it as "a powerful, tightly made film. It doesn't indulge in any flashy grandstanding, but it doesn't need."

"The three lead actors all excel, deftly, in their roles. Kay Kay is especially striking as the no-frills man who is genuinely pained by the measures he and the other cops go through to get suspects to talk."

"Pawan Malhotra as Tiger is alternatively smooth and seething as he manipulates the various people who serve him and play parts of his plan. As Badshah Khan, Aditya Srivastava is actually able to make his character sympathetic as a man who has been used and discarded and left holding the bag," it added.

Drawing a parallel with US, "Murphy's Movie Reviews" says, "Much as a certain Saudi named Osama bin-Laden would issue a jihad against American interests (recall that the first attacks on the World Trade Center also occurred in 1993), a cadre of Muslims led by Dawood Ibrahim - and who reputedly has ties to bin Laden and Al Qaeda - and Tiger Memon among others, crafted and executed a plan to set off numerous bombs around the city which form the core of the story for the film."

"There's a lot of material covered in the film and its structure of flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks requires an audience to pay careful and close attention. But Kashyap keeps the action moving and the overall movie turns out to be engrossing and detailed, " it said.

"For Indian audiences this film is akin to the various American-made movies about the attacks on the World Trade Center, whether they be the TV movies 'Path To Power' or 'Flight 93' or the feature films 'United 93' or 'World Trade Center'," Murphy's noted.

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Black Friday