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Black Friday(2007)
Independent Feb 9, 2007 | Limited
A film about the investigations following the 1993 serial Bombay bomb blasts, told through the different stories of the people involved --police, conspirators, victims, middlemen.
Note: Distributed by Adlabs Films
Releases
Original Release | Feb 9, 2007
Box Office
Results
$25,000
$35,000
$1,575,897
$1,610,897
Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital EX
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: India
Language: Hindi,English
Showtimes
Your Location or
(U.S. Only)
Summaries
Plot Summary
- On 9 March 1993 a small-time thug, Gul Mohammed, is detained at the Nav Pada police station. The police beat up Gul mercilessly and eventually he confesses to a conspiracy underway to bomb major locations around the city. Gul says that Tiger Menon is going to lead the attack against Bombay and all vital locations such as stock market, ministry offices, Shiv Sena Bhawan, train stations etc. will be targeted. Gul says that many operatives have been trained by Tiger for this mission. Tiger tells his men that despite Gul's arrest, the plan is on.The police dismiss his confession and, three days later (12th March, which is a Friday and the 17th day of Ramzan), Bombay is torn apart by a series of explosions leaving more than 300 dead and close to 1,600 injured. Investigators including Inspector Sawant (Ravi Kale) and Inspector Nandakumar Chaugule (Zakir Hussain) discover that the bombs were made of RDX, smuggled into the city with the aid of customs officials and the border police. The team finds a weapons laden van in Worli and inside the van recover a passport belonging to Rubina Memon. Tiger meets Dawood Ibrahim (Vijay Maurya) is Dubai and takes full responsibility for the blasts, but Dawood says that Tiger escaping from the police will be difficult as they know his link to the blasts due to the van.Then a Chawl reports a suspected scooter to the police, bringing in Inspector Rakesh Maria, Inspector Virendra Vani (Murali Sharma) and Chaugule. They find RDX inside the scooter which did not explode due to the carelessness of the person who assembled the bomb. Inspector Bhaskar Dangle (Kishor Kadam) works on Rakesh's team. Rakesh investigates Rubina and finds that she is Tiger's sister, and Tiger is a known smuggler in Bombay circle. From Rubina's apartment, Rakesh learns the identity of Asgar Muqadam, Tiger's assistant.Asgar Muqadam (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), 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. Asgar gives the names of Ayub Memon (who lives in Dubai) and Yakub Memon (Who lives in India) as Tiger's co-conspirator, along with all the other people (Imtiaz Gawate (Pranay Narayan), Mushtaq Tarani (Raj Singh Chaudhary), Bashir Khan (Ashraful Haque), Shanawaz Qureshi (Asif Basra), Yakub, Ayub, Yeda Yakub (Dibyendu Bhattacharya), Mohammed Dossa (Ragesh Asthana), Anwar Theba (Pankaj Jha)) who worked with Tiger on the Bombay blasts. The whole Memon family left for Dubai one day before the blast.Asgar gives details of the workshop where the RDX was prepared and fitted into vehicles. He also gives details of which person took which vehicle to which location. He also gives details of couriers (Mushtaq and Imtiaz) who placed the bombs in Juhu and Centaur hotels by booking rooms under a fake name. The van which was caught by the police was meant for the ministry complex. But the van got caught in the bomb blast outside the passport office. The occupants of the van got scared and abandoned it outside the Siemen's building, where it was found by the police. After the blasts, Tiger instructs everyone from Dubai, to leave Bombay.Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Maria (Kay Kay Menon) (currently chief of Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS)) is put in charge of the case.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 have 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 materialized. As soon as the men are picked up, the families of the accused start begging the police that they are innocent. Imtiaz Gawate is also captured after a lengthy chase through the streets and slums of Bombay.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 in Delhi. Tiger admonishes him to go underground. Badshah and Bashir leave for Badshah's village Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. Badshah's mother (Pratima Kazmi) is still in Bombay and he talks to her over the phone.From Rampur, they travel to Jaipur upon instructions from Tiger. Badshah gets tired of all the running around and the lack of support from his leadership. In Jaipur, Badshah stays with Yeda Yakub. Here Badshah learns from Anwar that their passports have been destroyed and Tiger had no plans to extricate them to Dubai. Badshah returns to Rampur. He learns that his mother has been questioned and harassed by the police. Moreover, Tiger is not picking up his phone. Eventually Tiger calls and tells Badshah to go to Delhi and from there to Calcutta. At first, Badshah was getting a regular supply of cash, but then that also stops. Distraught, he returns to Rampur, where Badshah was found by the police on 10 May 1993.Yeda Yakub is identified as the key person who brought the RDX into India. Yeda is close to Dawood and Tiger. Yakub smuggled the RDX into the country and stored it into the warehouse of a builder, who is a close friend. The builder eventually finds out that his warehouse is being used to store RDX. Yeda's brother Majid and sister Nafeesa are tortured by the police for his location. Yeda begs Tiger for help. To save his family, Yeda gives up the location of Tiger's remaining RDX in Bombay. 58 sacks of RDX are recovered.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.Based on Badshah's testimony, the police trace the motive for the blasts to the Bombay riots, the bloody warring between the Hindu and Muslim communities from December 1992 to January 1993, which left over 1500 people dead. Badshah saw first-hand how the Muslim community was left to defend itself as the police stood to one side while the violence escalated. The Bombay riots were an unprecedented outburst of violence and abuse, resulting in enormous emotional trauma and property loss. This is when Badshah met Tiger for the first time through Shahnawaz.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. Dawood Phanse (Gajraj Rao) who used to smuggle silver for Tiger, brought in the RDX into Bombay via the sea. Phanse was the one who bribed the police and customs officials to land the RDW in Bombay. Tiger personally oversaw the training of all terrorists. Tiger Bhai (as Tiger Memon is called) one of the chiefs inflamed suggests an attack on Bombay as the strongest message of retaliation, thus leading to Black Friday 12 March 1993.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, Yakub Memon (Imtiaz Ali), 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.
Storyline
- A dramatic presentation of the bomb blasts that rocked Bombay on March 12, 1993, displays the police investigation, amidst allegations of human rights violations, led by DCP Rakesh Maria, in tracking down the suspects, especially Bashir Khan. Bashir managed to elude authorities by re-locating to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and West Bengal, after finally being apprehended in Bombay. His confession and subsequent flashbacks showcases the apathy shown by authorities who refused to intervene during the destruction of the sacred Babri Masjid by Hindu Kar Sevaks, and the inability of the police to fulfill their mandate and protect the vulnerable, forcing many to flee to other locations. The subsequent aftermath that succeeded in irreversibly polarizing communities in Bombay; Pakistan's involvement in training and arms' supplies; the main alleged suspects, Dawood Ibrahim, and Mushtaq Memon, sought refuge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, while Indian politicians made a cosmetic move to re-name Bombay; and of the little-known plot to assassinate right-winged politicians, Bal Thackeray and L.K. Advani. — rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com) Bombay police arrest a convict Gul Mohammed an accused in Bombay riots who revels them that there will be multiple blasts in the city in the next three days.The cops dismiss his claim as they feel he is doing to protect himself from the riot charges 12th March 1993 the city of Bomaby is rocked by twelve back to back blasts changing its image forever killing 257 people and leaving 1400 injured.DCP Rakesh Maria is appointed to investigate the case his team finds an abandoned vehicle with loaded RDX and the documents in it lead them to house of smuggler Tiger Memon.Maria and his team get hold of his manager Asgar Muqadam who revels the truth that Tiger Memon is the mastermind behind the blasts as a revenge to Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay.Asgar also revels that Memon family escaped from the city to Dubai two days before the blast and the names of other accused who planted the bombs at various places.Maria and his team get hold of some accused while the big fishes have fled the country,while one of the accused Baadshah Khan is shown hiding at several locations in the country fearing for his life.Baadshah is finally arrested an bought to Bombay who tells Maria that they haven't done anything wrong as their community faced all the consequences during the riots.After few months Baadshah realizes that whatever they did was wrong and turns witness in the case and revels everything on how they were trained in Pakistan, the way RDX was imported to the city and how the blasts were planned accordingly. — alex.mjacko@gmail.com