No One Killed Jessica is a film that should have been made and somehow it's good that, of all people, Rajkumar Gupta wrote and made it. Already having shown his knack for brewing up a taut thriller (Aamir), it was assured that this film wont be a total waste.
Rajkumar is a smart director. After a long time in Hindi cinema, a Woman powered movie has made so much noise. And it was mostly due to the smart characterization and spunky dialogues. He has also picked a couple of good actors to fill important roles. In fact he has picked up some atrocious actors deliberately to give it a comic touch in between. e.g. (Mothers of Jessica and Manu Sharma - both are hilarious! )
Everyone knows the story, but what I wanted to see is how Rajkumar would treat it. Unfortunately, he went a little over the top - and pumped in a little more drama than required. Then he handled a few emotional scenes amateurishly. Also, there is a little bit extra stress on expletives, which seem out of place at times ( I dont mind it though!!). He had a great story, but the opening line of "hybird between fact and fiction" killed it a little. Fact was more interesting than fiction weaved in and they would have done well to stick to facts.
But, the movie has some excellent moments. it has awesome music and ofcourse, the screenplay is good. Vidya is subdued and Rani goes a little over the top. Rajesh Sharma as the investigating cop is brilliant. Myra Karn as Jessica is competent and infact, its a good job by the ensemble cast.
The promos, publicity categorized this as a thriller, but a thriller is something which keeps you on the edge and you don't know what will happen next. Well, this doesn't fall anywhere near that definition ( much like Valkyrie). If the objective was to make a thriller, well, Rajkumar failed. Also, the problem is, it did not evoke too much emotion in me. I wasn't enraged by what was happening, not moved by what happened. And that was the biggest disappointment. It could well be labeled as fast paced Drama that goes a bit over the top. Overall, a decent start to the year.
Rating : 6.5 / 10