Movie review: No One Killed Jessica (Hindi, 2011)

Director: Raj Kumar Gupta
Casts: Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Banal, Myra Karn


The movie is on a very important social issue of powerful people (politicians) abusing law of the country. Based on the true story of Jessica Lal, a Delhi-based model, being shot and killed by Manu, son of a politician, on a summer evening in 1999 at a New Delhi restaurant where Jessica was working as a celebrity barmaid that evening. Vikram, actor and model, was also working as bartender along with Jessica there at that evening. Jessica was shot at because she refused to serve drink to Manu and his two friends as the bar was closed. The incident happened in presence of about one hundred Delhi elites, but there were hardly 8-10 people who agreed to be witness before the police and court. Jessica’s family and particularly her sister Sabrina fought a legal battle which continued for a few years and saw key-witnesses getting hostile, supposedly under the influence from powerful friends and family of the accused.

The court acquitted Manu and other accused on February 2006, due to the lack of sufficient evidence. This triggered a public outrage which were well supported by electronic media and consequently led the way to further investigation by a fast-track court. Ultimately Manu got a life imprisonment on December 2006.

Movie has been directed by Rajkumar Gupta. Myra Karn played Jessica, Viday Balan played Sabrina (Jessica’s sister) and Rani Mukherjee played Meera, a TV journalist. Vidya and Rani had performed their part brilliantly. So did Myra with the limited scope that she had.

The screenplay has been good. However the camera took a strong feminist angle which was not necessary. Here we see Sabrina fighting a lone battle, moving from pillar to post (police station to court), which is lost initially due to the lack of witnesses or the key witnesses getting hostile of the key evidences getting fabricated. After Sabrina (Vidya) has lost the legal battle on February 2006, Meera (Rani) comes to the picture as an investigative TV journalist with the mission to fight the cause of Jessica and build a public consensus. Also the movie shows women population to build up a support movement by networking through mobile texts (SMSs), while men were shown to be some what inactive, insensitive or disinterested about the cause.

Possibly it has been done to attract the female audience. But we need to understand that change that had happened to our society in the last decade under the influence of satellite TV channels and other communication technologies like internet and cell phone. This is the age of INFOTAINMENT. People are now hungry about all sorts of information. People get entertained with the news of corruption, violence, war, exploitation and everything else under the sun. Even a previously dry subject like election result analysis gets a lot of viewer ship in TV. Media is a bid entertainment industry now and is a very competitive one. Hence media has to run around for scoops and sensational news, carryout sting operations to satisfy their viewer. Also the public want to exercise their power of expressing there opinion through internet blogs, forums and SMSes.

Hence, in 2006, when the Jessica Lall case suffered initial defeat at the court, the stage was already set for the media to use latest technologies like Spy camera to run sting operation and build up scoop for their viewers. The great thing is that it happened for all the good causes, and most importantly this was the demand of the time. So, this was the empowered common people of that time who wanted this movement for justice against the abuse of power by high and mighty of the society. And this was definitely not yet another feminist movement, which the movie tried to portray.

Another observation is that the movie has followed a documentary style. The emotional scenes didn’t touch the right chord and seemed rather loud at times (e.g. Sabrina and Juessica’s mother’s reaction at the hospital). Meera (Rani) had been too abusive; I’m not sure if that was very important for the movie.

The editing has been very good. Emphasis was given on the details like model of cellphones and cars on the road in 1999. The photography has been good. Rani looks great as Meera. She is getting day by day after her comeback.

In summary, the subject of the movie is great. The director deserves a special appreciation for that. Rani and Vidya had given a very powerful performance. It’s overall a good viewing experience. However it has rather been a documentary film type, and fails to build appropriate emotional connection with the viewers. So, I don’t expect it to be very successful at the box office.