heart and once the cast was revealed everyone were quite sure of what they can expect from the movie. With expectations kissing the sky did one get into the theaters and does she live up to it? As expected it does.

After the curtains are drawn what we are able to do is: be silent for a while and try to remember a movie that has created such an impact. Nandita Das has not just made an exceptional account of the Gujarat riots but also a movie which is straight from the heart.

Dealing with multiple stories is always tricky but this first timer goes through the process so effortlessly that the audience is drawn into the proceedings with ease. The movie is about the Gujarat riots and one day in the life of ten people and how their lives get affected by the riots. The story of a Muslim trying to flee from the troubled place with his Hindu wife, a singer unaware of all the commotion happening in the outside world, an auto rickshaw wala and his wife whose house has been burnt and want to avenge it, a house wife unable to express her dissatisfaction about the riots to her Hindu activist husband and his brother and a small boy who looses his whole family in the riots and is in search of his father. All these stories move parallel and also does gets intervened regularly. Firaaq is just a series of events in their lives and does not try to be preachy in anyway.

Nandita Das, being associated with some of the biggest names in filmmaking like Deepa Mehta, Maniratnam, and Sangeeth Sivan, has proved that she was not just mirroring their expectation but learning the tricks of the trade and combining all that to make a movie, which has become a film festival favorite and may well cover her entire showcase in her house with some prestigious statues. The movie does get a little slow in the first half but the second half more than makes up for the lost time, as it is intriguing. The climax, though, would have been better if it had been finished with Naseerudin Shah and not the child.

Nandita Das picks the best for her films. Cinematography by ace cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran does a work that might not be his best but is very functional for such a movie. The chase sequence before the climax is one of the reasons why he is hailed to be the best. Art by Gautam Sen is so helpful in setting the mood of the story, very good. Sreekar Prasad's editing is flawless. Dialogues are very hard hitting and to the point, and dialogues like “Sirf saat suron mein itni kabiliyat kahaan ki is nafrat ka saamna kar sakae” make you understand the turmoil the people went through at that point.

And now the actors. Nandita Das has picked the best and every single actor has given their best even if it is just a special appearance. Naseerudin Shah, playing an old singer, bowls us over with his exceptional acting once again; he never stops surprising us with the ease at which he goes through the emotions. Raghuveer Yadhav, an actor par excellence, excels in the role of a servant. Sanjay Suri and Tisca Chopra carry on their great form and gives a performance that is very natural, Sahana Goswami proves that Rock On was not a flash on the pan and comes with another spellbinding performance. Nowaz impresses. Paresh Rawal is good in a small role and Deepti Naval as his wife gives a performance of her life time, a performance which proves that she is one of the most gifted actors in this country. With just two scenes and working only with his emotions Nassar amazes all. And last but not the least, Mohammad Hasid as Moshin and sometimes Mohan gives a heart rendering performance and makes us completely fall in love with him, a talent which has to be treasured.

Overall this is a hard-hitting account of what the people underwent in the Gujarat riots without the usual melodrama. Some might not be ready to digest this movie and some might get offended too but that doesn't deter the fact that this is a brilliant movie and a film that will be hailed as one of the best by a debutant director ever in the history of cinema.

Verdict: A powerful account of a black day.