No One Killed Jessica is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Gupta. It stars Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan. Based on the Jessica Lal murder case, the film revolves on a bartender who dies after being shot by a politician's son and her sister's struggle to find justice for her death.
Made on a budget of , No One Killed Jessica was released theatrically on 7 January 2011. The film received widespread critical acclaim towards its screenplay and cast performances and emerged as a sleeper hit, grossing approximately in its theatrical run. It was nominated for Best Film, Best Director (Gupta) and Best Actress (Balan) at the 57th Filmfare Awards, where it won Best Supporting Actress (Mukerji).
Plot
Jessica, a bartender at an elite event in New Delhi, refuses to serve three men (Manish, Vishal and Lucky) alcohol after the last call. Manish, who is the son of a politician, shoots her in the head in response. There are dozens of eyewitnesses, but as Jessica's sister, Sabrina, discovers, they are either conveniently forgetful or willing to sell their testimony to the highest bidder, leaving an open-and-shut case hostage to greed and political influence.
Manish is taken into custody by the police and investigations begin. Inspector N. K. informs Sabrina that one of the two bullets that were sent for verification has been replaced. Sabrina's repeated attempts into getting the witnesses and evidence in order to prove Jessica's crime fail one by one. The court case runs until 2006. Due to lack of evidence and witnesses, the court acquits the culprits. Sabrina's mother suffers a heart attack due to the trauma caused by the news and dies in the hospital.
Meanwhile, reporter Meera Gaity finds out about the acquittal through a newspaper. Having expected Jessica's case to be an open and shut case, Meera is shocked, takes the matter in her own hands, and plans to get justice for Jessica. With the approval of her editor, she performs various sting operations and exposes the failure of law and order in the country while raising questions about the police and the authorities. Inspector N. K. helps Meera by sending her the tape of Manish where he confesses his crime. Meera uses the clip to publicly exploit the cases and starts to build up pressure on the system and Manish's father's political party.
Soon, the public, having followed the case on television, decides to protest against the cover-up by the powerful and bring justice to Jessica. A number of phone calls, SMS, and voice messages are sent through the channel in support for Jessica. Meera uses this public support to reach out to the government and the President for their help. A candlelight vigil march is organized for Jessica by the people of Delhi to stand for her and demand justice. Meanwhile, Sabrina, affected by all the trauma while fighting for her sister in court, seems to have given up and moved on. Meera approaches Sabrina to stand up for her sister again and assures her that she would get justice this time as she has the support of the entire city.
Political pressure gets mounted on the family of Manish and his father resigns from his position. The High Court summons the police for the recklessness they showed in the case. The police appeal to the High Court to have the case re-opened and it gets accepted. The case is promoted to the Supreme Court, where Manish is found guilty and is sentenced to life imprisonment. His allies, Vishal and Lucky, get punished with four years in jail.
Cast
The cast is listed below:
Rani Mukerji as Meera Gaity
Vidya Balan as Sabrina Lal
Yogendra Tiku as Sanjit Lal
Satyadeep Mishra as Meera's boss
Bubbles Sabharwal as Mallika Sehgal
Geeta Sudan as June Lall
Samara Chopra as Naina Sehgal
Shireesh Sharma as Pramod Bharadwaj
Myra Karn as Jessica Lal
Raj Kumar Gupta as Meera's colleague
Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Manish P. Bharadwaj
Rajesh Sharma as Inspector N. K. Neil Bhoopalam as Vikram Jai Singh Avijit Dutt as B. M. Pandit