Don’t mess with me: Noor (Sonakshi Sinha) reacts as her friends advise her on her career. (Courtesy of T-Series)

Indian comedy-drama movie Noor portrays the struggles of young journalists to maintain their idealism amid pressures from the editorial hierarchy and the prestige of exclusive reporting.

Indian actress Sonakshi Sinha did not need long to find her way to stardom in Bollywood, despite the fact that acting was not her first career choice.

While Sinha is the daughter of actor Shatrughan and actress Poonam, she began her career in Bollywood as a costume designer.

However, they say blood is thicker than water and the acting legacy of Sinha’s parents was too strong for her to resist and after just a couple of years working as a costume designer she made her acting debut in Dabangg, opposite one of India’s most prominent actors, Salman Khan.

Sinha’s acting prowess led her to many more movie roles with her most recent being in Noor.

The movie, which is based on the crime-thriller novel Karachi, You’re Killing Me! from Saba Imtiaz, tells the story of young journalist Noor Roy Chaudhary (Sinha), who finds her assignments boring.

Noor has pleaded with her boss, Shekhar (Manish Chaudary), to trust her with more important assignments, but he thinks she is not ready.

Instead, Shekhar asks Noor to accompany him to another unimportant interview with former porn star-turn-mainstream Bollywood actress Sunny Leone (portraying her-self in a cameo appearance).

Fed-up with Shekhar’s continued distrust of her skills as a journalist, Noor resigns and lies to her boss, telling him that CNN has hired her.

Now jobless, Noor tries to fill in her schedule with her best friends — the playful Saad (Kanan Gill) and Zara (Shibani Dandekar), a more serious character.

She also meets and hooks up with a photojournalist Ayananka (Purab Kohli) after a brief introduction during an exhibition of his photographs organized by Saad’s mother and her colleagues.

Eventually, Noor finds out that Ayananka is a journalist who previously worked for CNN and she decides to give journalism another shot by reapplying for her old job with Shekhar.

Shekhar agrees to rehire Noor and assigns her to interview Dr. Dilip Shinde to write a piece about the doctor’s foundation, which is sponsored by her boss’ wife and family. Noor realizes that there is a conflict of interest behind this assignment, but Shekhar assures her that it is alright.

After the interview, Noor discovers that Dilip has been involved in illegal organ donor trafficking. She manages to conduct an exclusive interview with one of Dilip’s victims, finally managing to find her own exclusive story, like she had always dreamed of.

However, Noor now faces a dilemma over bringing her investigation to the public in light of Dilip’s close association with her boss. She decides to show her material to Ayananka and asks his advice.

Unexpectedly, Ayananka betrays Noor and steals her interview footage, broadcasting it as his own.

The movie deals with two of the most common issues faced by journalists; conflicts of interest and the rights of exclusivity.

When journalistic investigations concern highly sensitive public issues and go against the editorial agenda of a press company, what should a journalist do to ethically broadcast their material to the public?

And when such reportage is exclusive, who has the rights to the content? Is it the journalist who obtains it or anyone else who has the capacity to make it available to the public?

These are the questions the movie tries to address.

The movie drags in the beginning. Director Sunhill Sippy’s introduction of the characters takes too long, leaving the viewer to wonder whether it is worthwhile to continue watching the film until its conclusion.

However, the movie improves by the second half as it begins to deliver critiques of social issues. There is a strong focus on the cruelties of the illegal organ trade that victimizes the poor in India.

Still, the strong social narratives come too late and if only Sippy had decided to introduce these earlier, he could have made a far more impactful movie.

The script also has its flaws and could have been better written.

To have Noor screaming at her boss, Shekhar, with the latter just standing in silence, welcoming the insults, is unrealistic.

Then there is the sub-plot in which Saad suddenly reveals romantic feelings toward Noor, but this comes out of the blue and feels forced.

Despite the movies’ flaws, Sinha delivers a good performance as Noor and the rest of the cast do not disappoint.

________________________

Noor

Director: Sunhil Sippy

Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Vikram Malhotra

Written by: Ishita Moitra Udhwani

Based on: Karachi, You’re Killing Me! by Saba Imtiaz

Starring : Sonakshi Sinha, Kanan Gill, Shibani Dandekar, Purab Kohli

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