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Black Friday (2005 film)
Encyclopedia
Black Friday is a 2004 Indian film
written and directed by Anurag Kashyap
based on Black Friday - The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, a book by S. Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. The film attempts to recreate those events and the intense feelings that followed them. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Best Film (Golden Leopard) award at the Locarno International Film Festival
.
, smuggled into the city with the aid of customs officials and the border police.
In turn, the film traces the motive for the blasts to the Bombay Riots, which is the term used to describe the bloody warring between the Hindu and Muslim communities in the period from December 1992 to January 1993, which left over 1500 people dead. The 'Bombay Riots' was an unprecedented outburst of violence and abuse, resulting in enormous emotional trauma and property loss. Tiger Memon
(Pavan Malhotra
) is an underworld don whose office is burnt to cinders during the riots. The suffering of the Muslim minorities in the riots incites a meeting of underworld leaders in Dubai, who then take it on themselves to seek retribution. Tiger Bhai (as Tiger Memon is called) one of the chief inflamed suggests an attack on Bombay as the strongest message of retaliation, thus leading to Black Friday 12 March 1993.
Asgar Muqadam, Tiger Memon's secretary is arrested on 14 March 1993. He is beaten till he provides whatever information he has about the bomb blasts, and that initiates a full police inquiry. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Maria (currently Inspector General of the Maharashtra Police), is put in charge of the case.
The next piece in the puzzle is the arrest of Badshah Khan (Aditya Shrivastava), one of the henchmen who had left Bombay and gone into hiding, who was found by the police on 10 May 1993.
After the blast, the accomplices in the crime are forced to lead a life of anonymity and secrecy as it becomes evident that Mumbai police has started picking up the suspects one by one. To make matters worse, their passports seem to have been destroyed at the behest of Tiger Memon. In spite of assurances to the contrary, the high command blatantly refuses any help to them once the bombings have materialised. Tired of being let down by his own people and without a place to hide, Badshah Khan realizes that there is no justification for his acts, and decides to become a police witness. On 4 November 1993, the police file a charge sheet against 189 accused. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) takes over the case.
Then on 5 August 1994, Tiger's brother, Yaqub Memon, willingly turns himself in to the authorities. In a candid Newstrack interview on national television Yaqub states that it was Tiger and his underworld associates who orchestrated the conspiracy. Tiger Memon has now disappeared.
blasts in Mumbai
which many believe were organised as retaliation for the Bombay riots
which left over 300 people dead and more than 1500 people injured.
Black Friday was not released in Indian theaters for two years, as on the eve of its release, a petition seeking a stay was filed by the people named in the film, the alleged perpetrators of the crime. Since the verdict was still pending for the 1993 Mumbai
serial blasts case, they argued that the film would bias public opinion against them and affect the courts decision. An argument that was ultimately upheld by the court.
The film was received rapturously at previews in India and abroad. It was released in the United Kingdom in 2006 and was finally given the go ahead by the Supreme Court for release in India on 9 February 2007, after the accused had been charged with TADA
(Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act), which carries a maximum sentence of death.
The DVD (Eagle Home Entertainment) synopsis contains the name of Tiger Memon
incorrectly spelled and printed as 'Tiger Menon', which is in fact a Malayali (Kerala
) Hindu name and not the Muslim name 'Memon'.
British director Danny Boyle
has cited Black Friday as an inspiration for his 2008 award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire
. Boyle stated that a chase in one of the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire was based on a "12-minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi
slum" in Black Friday.
and the lyrics were written by Piyush Mishra
. This was Indian Oceans first film soundtrack and it has a total of nine tracks - three songs and six instrumentals. The song Bandeh became immensely popular and reached #2 on the film charts. The music was well received by critics and the album was declared a "must buy." The score and soundtrack has been described as "haunting" and "goose bump[s]" inducing.
.
Matt Zoller Seitz of the New York Times described it as "epic and raw, and cut out from the same bloody cloth as Salvador
and Munich
.
Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter compares the film's "journalistic inquiry into cataclysmic social and political events" to that of Gillo Pontecorvo's classic The Battle of Algiers. He remarks that the film is without any lurid sensationalism and is objective.
David Chute of LA Weekly
described the film as "a rigorously naturalistic docudrama about a complex police investigation."
Ethan Alter of Film Journal International
describes it as a "potent reminder that Indian filmmaking
isn't limited to Bollywood
super-productions." According to Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide, "its assertion that religious terrorism
is about more than simply faith is food for thought." According to Ted Murphy of Murphy's Movie Reviews, "Kashyap keeps the action moving and the overall movie turns out to be engrossing."
The film received overwhelming reviews from Indian Critics.
Rajeev Masand
gave it 4/5 stars & said ".The actual blast scenes are shot in such a languid style, exactly the way a bystander would have experienced it.Believe me, no film yet has brought me so close to giving it a five out of five rating, but because it's just a little short of true greatness, I'm going to go with four of five for Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday.This is the kind of film to send to the Oscars."
Taran Adarsh
gave it 4/5 stars & said "Some films leave you stunned and speechless with sheer power.BLACK FRIDAY, directed by Anurag Kashyap, is one such film.On the whole, BLACK FRIDAY is an outstanding piece of work. One of the finest products to come out of Mumbai, this one is a hard-hitting film that has the courage to say what it says. Do yourself a favor: Watch BLACK FRIDAY. Hindi cinema at its best."
Nihil Kumar from Apun ka choice said "Taking least possible cinematic liberty and retaining objectivity throughout the film, Anurag Kashyap tells a compelling and disturbing story in ‘Black Friday’.Strongly Recommended."
Sanjay RAm from Business of cinema said "It simply states the point and that too in a very objective fashion."
Khalid Mohamed from Hindustan Times
said "The docu-drama structure is so skillfully employed that you’re gripped...".
Nikhat Kazmi
from The Times of India
gave it 5/5 stars & said "It's powerful, pointed and hard-hitting cinema that needs to be seen. Not for entertainment, but for soch-vichar. And no, let's have no state, city, town, village, panchayat, self-appointed moral-political custodian acting as a super censor, this time please."
Rediff said ".There are moments in the second half when the filmmaker seems to lose the vice-like grip by which he holds viewers but that's excusable since the film has to stay within the framework of its reality theme."
on 13 August 2004 and was received with widespread praises. It was a nominee for the coveted Golden Leopard (Best Film), but the award eventually went to the Italian film Private
. The film also won the Grand Jury Prize at the 3rd Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in April 2004.
Black Friday was also nominated for three Star Screen Awards
in 2008, but did not win any of them.
Cinema of India
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
written and directed by Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap (director)
Anurag Singh Kashyap is an Indian film director and screenwriter. As a director, he is known for Black Friday , a controversial and award-winning Hindi film about the 1993 Bombay bombings, followed by No Smoking , Dev D and Gulaal...
based on Black Friday - The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, a book by S. Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. The film attempts to recreate those events and the intense feelings that followed them. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Best Film (Golden Leopard) award at the Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
.
Plot
On 9 March 1993 a small time thug, Gul Mohammed, is detained at the Nav Pada police station and confesses to a conspiracy underway to bomb major locations around the city. The police dismiss his confession, and three days later, Bombay is torn apart by a series of explosions leaving 257 dead, and close to 1,400 injured. Investigators discover that the bombs were made of RDXRDX
RDX, an initialism for Research Department Explosive, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. It was developed as an explosive which was more powerful than TNT, and it saw wide use in WWII. RDX is also known as cyclonite, hexogen , and T4...
, smuggled into the city with the aid of customs officials and the border police.
In turn, the film traces the motive for the blasts to the Bombay Riots, which is the term used to describe the bloody warring between the Hindu and Muslim communities in the period from December 1992 to January 1993, which left over 1500 people dead. The 'Bombay Riots' was an unprecedented outburst of violence and abuse, resulting in enormous emotional trauma and property loss. Tiger Memon
Tiger Memon
Ibrahim Mushtaq Abdul Razak Nadim Memon better known by his nickname Tiger Memon is an Indian gangster and the prime suspect in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case and is wanted by Interpol and the CBI. He is a member of the D-Company gang and is a trusted lieutenant of its leader, Dawood Ibrahim...
(Pavan Malhotra
Pavan Malhotra
Pavan Malhotra is a Hindi film and television actor. He has played lead roles in Buddhadev Dasgupta’s National Film Award-winning Bagh Bahadur and Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro both released in 1989...
) is an underworld don whose office is burnt to cinders during the riots. The suffering of the Muslim minorities in the riots incites a meeting of underworld leaders in Dubai, who then take it on themselves to seek retribution. Tiger Bhai (as Tiger Memon is called) one of the chief inflamed suggests an attack on Bombay as the strongest message of retaliation, thus leading to Black Friday 12 March 1993.
Asgar Muqadam, Tiger Memon's secretary is arrested on 14 March 1993. He is beaten till he provides whatever information he has about the bomb blasts, and that initiates a full police inquiry. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Maria (currently Inspector General of the Maharashtra Police), is put in charge of the case.
The next piece in the puzzle is the arrest of Badshah Khan (Aditya Shrivastava), one of the henchmen who had left Bombay and gone into hiding, who was found by the police on 10 May 1993.
After the blast, the accomplices in the crime are forced to lead a life of anonymity and secrecy as it becomes evident that Mumbai police has started picking up the suspects one by one. To make matters worse, their passports seem to have been destroyed at the behest of Tiger Memon. In spite of assurances to the contrary, the high command blatantly refuses any help to them once the bombings have materialised. Tired of being let down by his own people and without a place to hide, Badshah Khan realizes that there is no justification for his acts, and decides to become a police witness. On 4 November 1993, the police file a charge sheet against 189 accused. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) takes over the case.
Then on 5 August 1994, Tiger's brother, Yaqub Memon, willingly turns himself in to the authorities. In a candid Newstrack interview on national television Yaqub states that it was Tiger and his underworld associates who orchestrated the conspiracy. Tiger Memon has now disappeared.
Cast
- Kay Kay MenonKay Kay MenonKay Kay Menon is an Indian actor.-Early life:Menon was raised in Ambarnath and Pune, Maharashtra. His early life was in "H" type Rangehills, Khadki which were factory quarters for those working in the ammunition and high explosives factories. His father was popularly known as "Cashier Menon"...
as Rakesh MariaRakesh MariaRakesh Maria is the Chief of Anti Terrorist Squad, Maharashtra, India.He belongs to the 1981 batch of the Indian Police Service. His first posting was as assistant superintendent of police in Akola, and then Buldhana, in the interiors of Maharashtra... - Pavan MalhotraPavan MalhotraPavan Malhotra is a Hindi film and television actor. He has played lead roles in Buddhadev Dasgupta’s National Film Award-winning Bagh Bahadur and Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro both released in 1989...
as Tiger MemonTiger MemonIbrahim Mushtaq Abdul Razak Nadim Memon better known by his nickname Tiger Memon is an Indian gangster and the prime suspect in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case and is wanted by Interpol and the CBI. He is a member of the D-Company gang and is a trusted lieutenant of its leader, Dawood Ibrahim... - Aditya Srivastava as Badshah Khan
- Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Yeda Yakub
- Imtiaz AliImtiaz Ali (director)Imtiaz Ali is an Indian film director, actor and writer. His 2007 film Jab We Met was a huge success in India. His 2009 film Love Aaj Kal was a bigger success and was declared a super-hit by Box Office India.His recent movie Rockstar has been declared successful at the box office.- Early life...
as Yakub MemonYakub MemonYakub Memon is a chartered accountant who is convicted in 1993 Bombay bombings case.He is a brother of Ibrahim Mushtaq 'Tiger' Memon, one of the prime accused of the attacks which killed 257 people.-Personal history:... - Vijay Maurya as Dawood IbrahimDawood IbrahimDawood Ibrahim , also known as Dawood Ebrahim, and Sheikh Dawood Hassan, is the head of the organized crime syndicate [[D-Company]] in Mumbai. He is currently on the wanted list of Interpol for organised crime and counterfeiting. He was No. 4 on the Forbes' World's Top 10 most dreaded criminals...
- Pratima KazmiPratima KazmiPratima Kazmi is an Indian television actress who has worked in many Bollywood movies and Hindi television drama series. Although she now works in Hindi movies & dramas, she started her career in 1997 with an UK's English film called Sixth Happiness, produced by an Indian director Waris Hussein,...
as Badshah's mother - Aliya Curmally as Shabana Memon
- Gajraj Rao as Dawood Phanse
- Zakir HussainZakir Hussain (actor)Zakir Hussain is an Indian film and television character actor who is known for his negative and comic roles. His best known performances include those of Rashid in Ramgopal Varma's 2005 film Sarkar, and Shardul in Sriram Raghavan's 2007 film Johnny Gaddaar.-Life and career:Zakir Hussain was born...
as Nand Kumar Chougale - Ragesh Asthana as Mohammad Dossa
- Raj Singh ChaudharyRaj Singh ChaudharyRaj Singh Chaudhary is an Indian actor, screenwriter and model best known for his role in the 2009 Hindi-language film, Gulaal. He has appeared in various other films such as Kuch Naa Kaho and Black Friday and as a lead in Antardwand...
as Mushtaq Tarani - Aditya BhattacharyaAditya BhattacharyaAditya Bhattacharya is an Indian film director and screenwriter, most known for his feature film, Raakh starring Aamir Khan, and which garnered three National Film Awards.He is the son of film director Basu Bhattacharya.-Early life:...
as Sheikh Aziz - Goutam Maitra as Tainur
- Loveleen Mishra as Newstrack Interviewer
- Nawazuddin SiddiquiNawazuddin SiddiquiNawazuddin Siddiqui is an Indian actor. He is particularly known for his role as Zilgai in Kabir Khan's 2009 film, New York.-Selected filmography:*Munna Bhai MBBS - As a pick pocket at railway station*The Bypass-*Elephant Boy-Baggar Master...
as Asgar Mukadam - Kishore Kadam as ACP Damale
Background
Black Friday is a film based on the 1993 serial bombBomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
blasts in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
which many believe were organised as retaliation for the Bombay riots
Bombay Riots
The Bombay Riots usually refers to the riots in Mumbai, in December 1992 and January 1993, in which around 900 people died. An estimated 575 Muslims and 275 Hindus died, and 2,000 people were injured in the riots. . An investigative commission was formed under Justice B.N. Srikrishna, but the...
which left over 300 people dead and more than 1500 people injured.
Black Friday was not released in Indian theaters for two years, as on the eve of its release, a petition seeking a stay was filed by the people named in the film, the alleged perpetrators of the crime. Since the verdict was still pending for the 1993 Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
serial blasts case, they argued that the film would bias public opinion against them and affect the courts decision. An argument that was ultimately upheld by the court.
The film was received rapturously at previews in India and abroad. It was released in the United Kingdom in 2006 and was finally given the go ahead by the Supreme Court for release in India on 9 February 2007, after the accused had been charged with TADA
Tada
Tada is a town on the Chennai-Nellore highway, just over from Chennai, India and from Tirupathi. It is located in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh and is about north of the Andhra Pradesh border. This place is the exact border of the Andhra Pradesh.Its nearest major railway station is Tada and...
(Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act), which carries a maximum sentence of death.
The DVD (Eagle Home Entertainment) synopsis contains the name of Tiger Memon
Tiger Memon
Ibrahim Mushtaq Abdul Razak Nadim Memon better known by his nickname Tiger Memon is an Indian gangster and the prime suspect in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case and is wanted by Interpol and the CBI. He is a member of the D-Company gang and is a trusted lieutenant of its leader, Dawood Ibrahim...
incorrectly spelled and printed as 'Tiger Menon', which is in fact a Malayali (Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
) Hindu name and not the Muslim name 'Memon'.
British director Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
has cited Black Friday as an inspiration for his 2008 award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
. Boyle stated that a chase in one of the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire was based on a "12-minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi
Dharavi
Dharavi is a slum and administrative ward, over parts of Sion, Bandra, Kurla and Kalina suburbs of Mumbai, India. It is sandwiched between Mahim in the west and Sion in the east, and spread over an area of 175 hectares, or...
slum" in Black Friday.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack and background score was composed by Indian OceanIndian Ocean (band)
Indian Ocean are an Indian rock band formed in New Delhi in 1990. They are considered to be the pioneers of fusion rock genre in India. Susmit Sen, Asheem Chakravarty, Rahul Ram and Amit Kilam formed the most stable and successful line-up in the band's timeline. This line-up lasted till Asheem's...
and the lyrics were written by Piyush Mishra
Piyush Mishra
Piyush Mishra is an Indian film and theatre actor, music director, lyricist, singer, scriptwriter.-Early life and education:He spent his early life in Gwalior, where he received his education...
. This was Indian Oceans first film soundtrack and it has a total of nine tracks - three songs and six instrumentals. The song Bandeh became immensely popular and reached #2 on the film charts. The music was well received by critics and the album was declared a "must buy." The score and soundtrack has been described as "haunting" and "goose bump[s]" inducing.
Controversies
The film was released in the United Kingdom with 17 seconds of the cockfighting scenes deleted. Laws in the UK do not allow any film footage of actual animal cruelty that has been deliberately orchestrated by film-makers.Critical Reception
The film has been appreciated by critics all over the world.The film has an 86% fresh rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Matt Zoller Seitz of the New York Times described it as "epic and raw, and cut out from the same bloody cloth as Salvador
Salvador (film)
Salvador is a 1986 war drama film which tells the story of an American journalist in El Salvador covering the Salvadoran civil war. While trying to get footage, he becomes entangled with both leftist guerrillas and the right wing military...
and Munich
Munich (film)
Munich is a 2005 historical fiction film about the Israeli government's secret retaliation attacks after the massacre of Israeli athletes by the Black September terrorist group during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The film stars Eric Bana and was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg...
.
Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter compares the film's "journalistic inquiry into cataclysmic social and political events" to that of Gillo Pontecorvo's classic The Battle of Algiers. He remarks that the film is without any lurid sensationalism and is objective.
David Chute of LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
described the film as "a rigorously naturalistic docudrama about a complex police investigation."
Ethan Alter of Film Journal International
Film Journal International
Film Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It is a sister publication of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and other periodicals....
describes it as a "potent reminder that Indian filmmaking
Cinema of India
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
isn't limited to Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
super-productions." According to Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide, "its assertion that religious terrorism
Religious terrorism
Religious terrorism is terrorism by those whose motivations and aims have a predominant religious character or influence.In the modern age, after the decline of ideas such as the divine right of kings and with the rise of nationalism, terrorism more often involved anarchism, nihilism and...
is about more than simply faith is food for thought." According to Ted Murphy of Murphy's Movie Reviews, "Kashyap keeps the action moving and the overall movie turns out to be engrossing."
The film received overwhelming reviews from Indian Critics.
Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand is an Indian film critic and entertainment reporter for CNN-IBN. Masand started his career as an entertainment correspondent at the young age of 16...
gave it 4/5 stars & said ".The actual blast scenes are shot in such a languid style, exactly the way a bystander would have experienced it.Believe me, no film yet has brought me so close to giving it a five out of five rating, but because it's just a little short of true greatness, I'm going to go with four of five for Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday.This is the kind of film to send to the Oscars."
Taran Adarsh
Taran Adarsh
Taran Adarsh is an Indian film critic, journalist, editor and film trade analyst. He is also a former producer and screenwriter. He is the son of film director and producer, B.K. Adarsh....
gave it 4/5 stars & said "Some films leave you stunned and speechless with sheer power.BLACK FRIDAY, directed by Anurag Kashyap, is one such film.On the whole, BLACK FRIDAY is an outstanding piece of work. One of the finest products to come out of Mumbai, this one is a hard-hitting film that has the courage to say what it says. Do yourself a favor: Watch BLACK FRIDAY. Hindi cinema at its best."
Nihil Kumar from Apun ka choice said "Taking least possible cinematic liberty and retaining objectivity throughout the film, Anurag Kashyap tells a compelling and disturbing story in ‘Black Friday’.Strongly Recommended."
Sanjay RAm from Business of cinema said "It simply states the point and that too in a very objective fashion."
Khalid Mohamed from Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
said "The docu-drama structure is so skillfully employed that you’re gripped...".
Nikhat Kazmi
Nikhat Kazmi
Nikhat Kazmi is a senior correspondent and well-known film critic from India, who has been writing for The Times of India, since 1987.-Books:* If Shakespeare was a gun: a play. Writers Workshop, 1984....
from The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
gave it 5/5 stars & said "It's powerful, pointed and hard-hitting cinema that needs to be seen. Not for entertainment, but for soch-vichar. And no, let's have no state, city, town, village, panchayat, self-appointed moral-political custodian acting as a super censor, this time please."
Rediff said ".There are moments in the second half when the filmmaker seems to lose the vice-like grip by which he holds viewers but that's excusable since the film has to stay within the framework of its reality theme."
Awards
The film was screened at the 57th Locarno International Film FestivalLocarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
on 13 August 2004 and was received with widespread praises. It was a nominee for the coveted Golden Leopard (Best Film), but the award eventually went to the Italian film Private
Private (film)
Private is a 2004 film directed by Saverio Costanzo. A debut film by the director, the film is a minimalist psychological drama about a Palestinian family of seven suddenly confronted with a volatile situation in their home that in many ways reflects the larger ongoing conflict between Palestinians...
. The film also won the Grand Jury Prize at the 3rd Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in April 2004.
Black Friday was also nominated for three Star Screen Awards
Star Screen Awards
The Star Screen Awards is an annual awards ceremony in India honoring professional excellence in film. The nomination and award selection is done by a panel of distinguished professional from the industry itself.- History :...
in 2008, but did not win any of them.
- Best Actor in a Negative Role - Pavan Malhotra
- Best ScreenplayStar Screen Award for Best ScreenplayThe winners of the Star Screen Awards for Best Screenplay are listed below:...
- Anurag Kashyap - Best EditingStar Screen Award for Best Editing-1990s:*1994 Hum Aapke Hain Kaun - Mukhtar Ahmed*1995 Haqeeqat - Kuldeep Mohan*1996 Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin - Renu Saluja*1997 Virasat - N. Gopalakrishnan*1998 Soldier - Hussain A. Burmawala...
- Aarti Bajaj