Mumbai: A survivor of the 1986 Pan Am hijack has lauded a Bollywood film on the tragic incident for helping him relive those horrible moments.
The film “Neerja” is “experience of our lives,” wrote Khanjan Dalal, who survived the hijack of Pan Am Flight 73 in September 1986.
The film, directed by Ram Madhvani has Sonam Kapoor in the lead. It was released globally on February 19. The film is about Neerja Bhanot, the flight attendant who lost her life while saving others on the hijacked flight.
While saluting the biographical thriller, Dalal, whose mother Trupti Dalal died during the hijack, wrote an emotional message on Facebook on Monday.
“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,” Dalal shared.
“On the contrary it transcends 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,” he wrote.
“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,” he added.
Atul Kasbekar, who has co-produced the film, took to Twitter on Monday to thank Khanjan for sharing his feelings about “Neerja”.
While sharing a photograph of Khanjan’s message, Kasbekar wrote: “This from a survivor of PanAm73. Thank you so much Khanjan. We were intensely mindful of our responsibility to you.”
“Neerja” also features Shabana Azmi, Shekhar Ravjiani and Yogendra Tiku, reports The Hindu.