Trial by Fire Review: Gripping and solidly performed

A cooker whistle sirens in the kitchen. The flames of the stove are lensed in close up shots, indicating a mishap lurking and waiting to unfurl in the subsequent reels. Cut to the living room where a doting father is engrossed in the nintendo video game with his 13 year old son and his friend.

 

This is the home of the Krishnamoorthys - Shekhar and Neelam( played by the incredibly talented duo, Abhay Deol and Rajshri Deshpande). They bid a goodbye to their kids, who leave to Upahar cinema hall in the posh south Delhi to watch JP Dutta's Border on the fateful day of 13th June 1997, oblivious of the fact that they would never see them alive again.

 

Cut to the horrific scene of the fire tragedy.Thick dark Smoke enshrouds the air, a frantic crowd and fire fighters, ambulances invade the ground.

 

Director Prashant Nair and Randeep Jha stage a gut- wrenching and deeply moving account of the attermath of the Upahar Tragedy through the personal experiences of the Krishnamoorthys who fought a 20 year long legal battle to seek justice for their dead children and the other deceased, against Delhi's most powerful business czars, the Ansals.

 

Rajshri Deshpande emerges as the most strongest character in this visceral and slow burning 7 episode series, imbuing Neelam with grit and grief.She doesn't shed tears, but her sullen eyes and stolid persona form the cocoon of the inner turmoil and trauma she is experiencing, with the stakes of fighting a stupendous battle against the influential tycoons at an all time high.

 

She is sparklingly complemented by another helluva performer, Abhay Deol whose brooding defiance to bending down is an antithesis to his inherently sober demeanour. He approaches Srikanth with heartbreaking and intuitive honesty. 

Together they bring an immaculate and realistic physical and emotional transformation navigating through the 20 years.

 

They are also surrounded with an impressive ensemble - Ashish Vidyarthi playing a guilt-ridden agent from the opponent side, Shilpa Shukla a caring neighbor, Anupam Kher and Ratna Pathak - a senior citizen couple from Defense,and Rajesh Tailang whose lives are connected to the tragedy.

 

The narrative gets a bit tedious and exhausting after the 3rd and 4th episodes with each of them getting flabby and running into 45 odd minutes.Nair and Jha redeem the slog with a visceral final episode which plays the events that transpired when the theatre caught fire. With most exits unavailable and no ushers to help, people were trapped and choked to death.The mishap claimed 59 lives and more than 100 were severely injured.