Movie Synopsis:Daughter of John Day (Naseeruddin Shah), a Bank Manager and his wife Maria Day (Shernaz Patel) dies in the forest fire. Circumstances make John believe that there are some hidden truths about the fire. He starts investigation which leads him to a deadly end and can cost his life too.
Star Cast:Naseeruddin Shah, Randeep Hudda, Sharat Saxena, Vipin Sharma, Shernaz Patel and Elena Kazan in lead role. Anand Mahadevan, Makrand Deshpande, Deepak Shirke, Denzil Smith and Dinesh Lamba and Taran bajaj are in supporting role.
John Day (2013) Full Story:John Day (Naseeruddin Shah) is a Manager in Royal Citizen Bank and lives happily with his wife Maria Day (Shernaz Patel) and a young and charming daughter Pearl Day who wants to become a musician but play Football since her father wants her to be become a footballer. This fact is unknown to John. Pearl’s boyfriend wants her to spend some time with him in a forest farm which belongs to his friend’s father. Pearl tells lie to her father that she is going to a tour with her friends. John initially does not agree to her proposal but when Maria insists he allows Pearl to go. Pearl and her boyfriend visit in the forest and spend a quality time. However, while her boyfriend was out for swimming a fire breaks out in the forest and Pearl takes her last breath in the forest.
Before the life of John and Maria can be back to the normal Maria Day is made hostage at home and other team members compels John Day is compelled to make them rob the bank. While hostage Maria is beaten brutally and she enters in the stage where she can hear and see but cannot respond and kept in Hospital.
Inspector Mangesh Sindhe (Vinay Sharma) starts investigating the Bank Robbery matter and finds ACP Gautam (Randeep Hooda) is also interested in the case unofficially. Gautam is a criminal mind Police Cop who wants a file from the Royal Citizen Bank i.e. the same Bank where John is working as a Manager. Gautam sends his girlfriend Tabbassum (Elena Kazan) to bring that file. Tabbassum successfully brings that file but the file does not have the required documents which are about ‘Casablanca Estate’ the same place where John’s daughter was caught fire. Gautam has made a deal of 50 Cr with Liyakat (Dinesh Lamba) going against the gigantic Mafia Head Sikandar Khan (Sharat Saxena).
Gautam understand that the documents of ‘Casablanca Estate’ must be robbed by the bank robbers. He seeks unofficial help from Inspector Mangesh who also gets ready after getting money from Gautam. They started hunting for the bank robbers without knowing that John Day is following Gautam wherever he goes. In this way John comes to know about every Bank Robber and starts killing them one by one. But the things are going to be very dreadful in the coming time.
Music:Background Music and songs have been composed by Strings and Kshtiji Tarey. There are two songs in the movie and one of them is in both Male and Female version which plays with the background.
1. Charon Taraf |Singer and Music Composer & Director Strings | Lyricist-
3. Kis Lamhe Mein (Male) | Singer and Music Composer & Director Strings | Lyricist-
Songs are in the first part half hour of the movie and thereafter there is no song in the movie which is very good thing for a thriller movie.
Story and Screenplay:Director Ahishor Solomon has himself written the story script and screenplay which is a very good one for a thriller movie. The script is written for pure Thriller lover and no scope for masala elements are kept there by Solomon. Though, as a screenplay writer, Solomon has forget to established a few things and has left them untouched yet the screenplay is a powerful one in the recent years.
Acting:Naseeruddin Shah is without doubt is master of acting and is himself an acting school. His expression as a helpless Husband and Bank Manager are classic. As a father, who has lost her daughter and can go to any extend to find out the culprit behind her untimely death, Naseer has done extremely well.
Randeep Hooda as a corrupt Cop looks good and maintains his typical attitude throughout the movie. This attitude style acting looks good over him and that is why he has repeated the same in Sultan and Baaghi 2.
Vipin Sharma is very good actor and we have seen many films where he has done extremely well, this includes Taarey Zameen Par where Vipin has shown peak of his acting potential as a frustrated and helpless father along with Tisca Chopra who played Mother in the movie. In this movie he played a corrupt cop who knows how to encash the opportunity.
Sharat Saxena has played the Mafia King but is given limited space. He has brilliantly portrayed character of a Mafia Don who has humanity still live within him.
Direction:Ahishor Solomon who has earlier been assistant director for the movies like Paap (2003), Rog (2005) and Darna Zaroori Hai (2006), made his Writer-Director debut from this movie and he has done exceptionally well. Being the writer of the Movie he already knows the soul of the movie and the rest he did with his direction. After first 15 Minutes the movie goes at a regular pace, though at some points it appears that movie is a bit slow yet the entire movie maintain a standard pace and curiosity of the audience does not die.
Movie Review John Day (2013)
John Day is basically for Thriller lovers. The movie has only one element and that is Thrill and its counterpart Suspense. But the movie is not meant for Front Row spectators and for Mass and meant only for multiplex culture. That is why commercial success was denied to the movie and it could earn approx. 2.2 Cr against a budget of 9 Cr. As a critic the movie seems a good thriller for those who want to see pure thriller in a classic way. However, missing entertainment portion disappoints the audience. Moreover, as a multiplex audience I feel movies should be made for general people and not for the contentment of Writer or Director and this movie does the same.
Inspite of all these odds the movie is a very good but underrated Thriller which is worth watching especially during these days when common man is compelled to sit at home due to COVID-19.
