As the standoff between the terrorists and airport officials drags on, we periodically see short flashbacks of Neerja's past, showing us who she is as a person, how she got to this point in her life and why she's able to remain strong in such extraordinary circumstances. Throughout the ordeal, Neerja helps her fellow flight attendants keep calm and leads them in taking care of the passengers as well as possible. The hijackers demand that new pilots be sent to the plane, but are forced into lengthy negotiations with Pakistani authorities. As they begin to take control of the plane (which is still on the ground), Neerja quickly warns the flight crew, who at first hesitate, but then follow protocol and abandon the cockpit so they can't be forced to fly the plane. When the plane lands in Karachi to pick up more passengers for the next leg of its scheduled flight, four of those passengers turn out to be terrorists with the Abu Nidal Organization. It's her first time being a lead flight attendant, a promotion which turns out to be very fortunate for the passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 73. He hands her an early birthday gift and makes her promise not to open it until her birthday, two days later. Her boyfriend, Jaideep (Shekhar Ravjiani) shows up at her parents' house to drive Neerja to the airport. So, in the early morning hours of September 5, 1986, Neerja drags herself out of bed and gets ready to go work a flight from Mumbai to New York, by way of Karachi, Pakistan and Frankfurt, Germany.
Neerja's mother, Rama (Shabana Azmi) asks her to leave the airline and go back to modeling. She then went to work for Pan Am Airlines. Eventually, Neerja made the socially difficult decision to get a divorce. She was a model, but her emotionally abusive husband pressured her to quit so she could spend more time and energy tending to his needs. She's a happy and vibrant young woman, as we see during a birthday party early in the film. Neerja Bhanot (Sonam Kapoor) is a 22-year-old flight attendant, about to celebrate her 23rd birthday.
Hollywood, THIS is how you tell a true story. These Indian filmmakers respected history enough to tell this story as it actually happened, accurate in the film's major plot points and its relatively minor details.
No typical Hollywood phrases like "inspired by a true story" or "based on true events" were needed. This story needed no embellishments, and screenwriters Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyukta Shaikh Chawla along with Ram Madhvani, directing only his second feature film, clearly understand that. The drama "Neerja" (NR, 2:02), about one of India's national heroes, is a prime example of that. Hollywood filmmakers could learn a few things from filmmakers in India when it comes to making a movie about a true story.
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