Neerja: Things that are making our wait very difficult

Sonam Kapoor will be seen playing the role of the brave airhostess Neerja Bhanot, who saved several lives on board the hijacked PanAm flight 73 and died covering three kids from the line of fire, in her upcoming movie, 'Neerja,' directed by Ram Madhvani. To get into the skin of her character, the 'Prem Ratan Dhan Payo' actress met Neerja’s family. On meeting Sonam, Rama Bhanot, Neerja's mom, said that Sonam reminded her of her daughter. However, like any mom would say, Rama said that her 'laado' was prettier than Sonam! In a behind-the-scenes video released by the makers, Sonam is seen recalling the incident in saying that she was indeed under a lot of pressure to live up to the real Neerja's character. In the movie, Rama Bhanot's role is played by the great actress Shabana Azmi. Read on to find out more about the film which will release this Friday on February 19, 2016…

Sonam Kapoor’s much talked about film, Neerja, will soon see the light of the day. Directed by Ram Madhvani, the film is a biographical account of the flight hijack incident that killed a brave young attendant, Neerja Bhanot. While the goosebump arousing trailer has already left us wanting for more, here are a few more things that have upped our expectation from the film and are making our wait ever so difficult…

The forgotten hero

An ordinary 23-year old model-air hostess manages to save the lives of 360 out of 380 passengers aboard a hijacked flight and sacrifices her life to save three kids in range of a firing, becoming the youngest recipient of the Ashok Chakra. Now that’s a hero we definitely want to know more about! For the uninitiated, Neerja was a senior flight attendant on PanAm flight 73 which was hijacked in Karachi and did her best to save all passengers without bothering about her own safety. It's about time that a story that glorious be narrated.

Out of her comfort zone

We've seen Sonam as the chirpy, bubbly girl next door and we've seen her as the bubbly Princess too. But for the first time in her career, Sonam Kapoor is going to step out of her comfort zone and take on a hard-hitting, performance driven role and from what we've seen in the trailer, the actress seems to be doing an outright fab job at it. Neerja is Sonam's reply to all those who have forever been criticising Sonam for being more of a fashionista and less of an actress.

An uncanny resemblance

While Sonam stepping into the biographical zone is sure something to look out for, she also seems to fit the part with uncanny precision. Be it the physicality - her height, built and overall appearance- or the fact that they both are bubbly characters belonging to the glam world, there seems to be no one better than Miss Kapoor to portray Neerja. Whether our judgments are valid or not, however, remains to be seen.

Debut tales While actor turning singers is a common occurrence in Bollywood, the other way round is seldom witnessed. But when it happens, it is likely to up our curiosity levels as it happened in case or Shekhar Ravjiani who is making his acting debut with Neerja. Whether his acting mettle is as high as his musical merits is something we'll soon find out. This is one performance we are eagerly looking forward to.

An award winning shot

The film not only marks the acting debut of Shekhar Ravjiani, but also the directorial debut of Ram Madhvani in Bollywood. Madhvani has filmed a documentary, 'Let's Talk,' prior to this which garnered much appreciation and has also directed several award winning ad films. It would be interesting to see how Ram fares on the Bollywood platform.