ZERO DARK THIRTY

ZDT is more of a chronicler of events leading to (Beware – Spoiler Ahead !!!!!!!) the death of Osama Bin Laden. While the final picture is always known to the audience, the fun lies in how the jigsaw pieces come together over the 2hour 37minute runtime to form the final picture. If you’re in the mood for brainless twists and illogical turns watch an Abbas-Mustan flick instead.

There is absolutely nothing new in the plot, nothing that the papers haven’t regurgitated over and over again. Right from the inhumane torture methods employed to the final violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, everything has been documented.

What’s new though is the ref
reshing treatment given to the docu-drama by Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to have won Oscars for both Best Picture and Best Director for Hurt Locker. This time round though, its difficult for this Mark Boal written and produced film to get Best Picture since there is little by way of suspense. Infact compared to Argo, it appears substantially less entertaining as well. (And we know the 3 things that sell movies in India – Entertainment, entertainment and entertainment – courtesy The Dirty Picture). Few actually refer to this as Anti-Pop !!!!

Make no mistake though, I highly recommend this movie, for all cinephiles and especially budding directors for it’s a crash course in how detailing and painstaking research can elevate the material, keeping the audience interested even though they know what’s happening next.

This is a singular film. We see what is happening, and we’re allowed to have our own thoughts about it, and to carry them with us out of the theatre. It’s a movie that follows you home. It makes an impact with hardly any preaching. Very, very subtly the point is made that torture almost always resulted in wrong information. Bribery (a Lamborghini, no less !!!) has better results, but there is no substitute for hours spent poring over files and re-going over the details…. That’s where the real intelligence is gathered from.

Starting off with a black screen and 9/11 recordings perfectly sets the stakes for the decade long hunt. Quickly moving from CIA Black Sites around the world to Pakistan to Afghanistan to Washington and culminating in the Abbotabad raid at zero dark thirty (military speak for 12.30 AM), the movie unfolds like a razor blade – sharp and direct. No unwanted side plots or indulgent scenes here. No ideology or politics here. Only honesty. Just the facts which inevitably pulls the audience into ambiguous moral territory.
No decent human could fully agree with the American methods to counter terrorism, but there is no sugarcoating here. The movie has presented the terrorists and the search for them as it is in real life – cruel, controversial, cold blooded, corrupt and almost cannibalistic (in the sense that human lives have little value in this war on terror)….. There are many scenes where the line between those carrying out terrorism and those attempting to refute it grows increasingly tricky to discern.

The last 40 minutes are right on riveting. You’ll forget you are in a movie theater once the helicopters take off, instead you will be riding shotgun on one of the most famous missions in history. Bigelow does not resort to romanticism or flag- waving sensationalism to make the finale more palatable.

The protagonist Maya is a uni-dimensional character with no apparent family and no real friends. Jessica Chastain’s portrayal of the obsessive CIA analyst deserves an Oscar and she will get it.

In conclusion, if a ticket at a multiplex costs Rs. 300, this movie is worth the money. Watch it, if only for the history lesson…….Like Michael Crichton has eloquently put “If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ”

SAUMIL BHANSHALI