‘Noor’ movie review: Sonakshi Sinha shines in this thought-provoking film

Directed By: Sunhil Sippy
Produced By: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Vikram Malhotra
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Kanan Gill, Purab Kohli
Duration: 1 hour 56 minutes 
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 3/5

Movies based on novels are nothing new in Bollywood. There are many successful films that have been adapted from a book. This morning at 9 am we were in a theatre to watch Sonakshi Sinha’s ‘Noor’ that also falls in this category. The movie directed by Sunhil Sippy is based on the Saba Imtiaz’s novel ‘Karachi, You’re Killing Me’. The makers have changed the backdrop from Karachi to Mumbai. So, does this film which has journalism as its baseline impress us or not? Find out in our ‘Noor’ movie review here…

Noor (Sonakshi Sinha) is a journalist, but hates her life as according to her everything in her life is going wrong. Her father loves the pet cat more than her; she is forced to cover the stories and the interviews which she doesn’t want to. For example, an interview of Sunny Leone (by the way, as an entertainment reporter, I would like to point out that interviewing Sunny is not a bad thing at all). Well, she wants to do hard beat journalism like some hard-hitting story, and finally she gets one. How Noor’s life takes the turn after she does that story, takes things in the movie forward…

First and foremost, let us tell you that the movie raises a very big question, that as a journalist do we sometimes forget the word ‘humanity’. Is getting breaking news only important to us and not the people related to it? Well, every journalist watching this movie will relate to Noor’s character. Saba Imtiaz’s story has been converted quite well into a good screenplay. The sequence, when Noor’s boss explains the importance of interviewing Sunny Leone, is outstanding. The sequence, when Noor interviews the person who is going to give her the big story, is fantastic. Believe us, it will choke you.

But, we’re not saying there are no dull moments. There are a few moments especially in the first half which are a bit unnecessary for the film. Even towards the climax when the film’s pace should have gone up, it just stays neutral. There’s one major issue in the second half when Noor and Saad decide to fly to London in the morning and in the evening the board the flight. We wonder if getting a visa for UK is so easy.

Sunhil Sippy succeeds in narrating the story of Noor and gets a refreshing film on the screen. The movie will surely make you sit and think ‘Is Mumbai, actually killing us?’. Well, talking about Mumbai, Keiko Nakahara has wonderfully captured the city. Editing which is handled by Aarif Sheikh is good, but could have been better.

One department that this film gets full marks in, is the performances. After watching ‘Noor’, believe us, we are feeling extremely bad for Sonakshi Sinha that she was wasted in films like ‘Dabangg’, ‘R… Rajkumar’, ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and others. Her performance in ‘Akira’ too was strictly average. But, as Noor, Sonakshi nails it. She is just perfect. She looks the part and yes, has brilliantly managed to portray different emotions on the big screen. We won’t be wrong if we say this is her best performance till date. Kanan Gill makes his Bollywood debut with the film and he is quite good. Purab Kohli impresses us with his charm and Shibani Dandekar too leaves a mark. A special mention for Manish Choudhary (Noor’s boss) and Shweta Tambe (Malti), they are amazing in their respective roles. Sunny Leone’s cameo is nice and sweet.

Talking about the music, ‘Noor’ offers nothing great, the music is strictly mediocre.

On the whole, ‘Noor’ surely deserves a watch for its honesty and of course a great performance by Sonakshi.

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