Neerja Trailer: Will Sonam finally make a Breakthrough?

The trailer of Sonam Kapoor starrer Neerja is out. It is a biopic based on the life of Neerja Bhanot, a flight attendant working for Pan Am who laid down her life while protecting the passengers during a highjack conducted by Palestinian terrorists. She became the youngest person to win Ashok Chakra, India?s highest peacetime bravery award for civilians. After Airlift, it is another Bollywood film on real life incidents that take place in an around an aircraft.

The trailer shows as much and there is no mystery or twist in it. We see a young girl in happy family who becomes an air hostess and loves her job. Her Wiki bio does say that she had a difficult marriage but probably the film apparently chooses not to touch that part. Anyways, that is probably better because the focus will be on the highjack only. The few snippets of that episode do look good on the trailer, almost like a horror movie, with people hiding behind closed doors to avoid the evil forces. We do not know much about the director Ram Madhvani. He made an English film called Let?s Talk, an interesting experiment that has not been seen by many. Anyways, as an ad film maker, he is expected to be at least technically competent.

Apart from the inspirational story itself, the film becomes interesting due to Sonam Kapoor’s career graph. Kapoor, in her personal life is a feisty and outspoken person who is unafraid to offer her opinion on any issue. However, she has not been able to translate the same to her screen persona. She debuted the same day Deepika Padukone did. However, after the commercial failure of her initial big projects, she seemed to lose her way, acting in horrid films such as Players and Thank You and achieving neither critical nor commercial success of any kind. Recently she had a big hit with PRDP but let us face it, it was a Bhai film and nothing else matters in it. Even in other roles she has been mostly stuck with her fashionista persona.

So Neerja is not only the story of a brave heart but it can also be the story of an actress finally breaking away from the shackles of her self-created persona. The film also stars Shabana Azmi as her mother along with many other familiar character actors. But the focus surely will remain on Kapoor. Her natural image and looks are well suited to play an usual air hostess but the question is, can she take the pressure like Neerja did?

Anyways, see the trailer here if you have not.