Mumbai: The survivor of Pan Am flight 73, Khanjan Dalal showered praises on the “Neerja”, starring Sonam Kapoor in a title role. He called the picture – “an experience of our lives”. The film is a biopic on the flight attendant, Neerja Bhanot, who lost her life while saving passengers of the hijacked plane.
Khanjan Dalal lost his mother during the hijack. On his official Facebook page, he wrote, “To some it is just another movie very well made, they rave about it, ponder over, even cry, okay… Finished… Let’s have popcorn and soda, go home and tell others how great it was, but… To some of us it is an experience of our lives shared in an aesthetically enhanced way that will always be within us forever and ever.”
He further wrote, “On the contrary it transcend into the realms of memory which is persistently haunting, a memory that no man made tool can erase and you don’t have the slightest idea what it feels like when the lower portion of your clothes is completely drenched in your mother’s blood.”
“Run bare feet on a tarmac for two km, watch your father wait for a transport to arrive to carry his wife’s coffin for 45 minutes and see him cry helplessly after 30 years… ‘Neerja’ is not a movie well made… It is an episode of our life overwhelmingly well revealed… Salute,” Khanjan Dalal added.
The co-producer of the much-appreciated film, Atul Kasbekar took to micro-blogging site Twitter and thanked the survivor for expressing his opinion about the movie. “This from a survivor of PanAm73. Thank you so much Khanjan. We were intensely mindful of our responsibility to you,” wrote Kasbekar while sharing the photograph of Khanjan’s message.
