Would you choose 10 million rupees or a bullet to your head? Three hundred individuals witnessed a murder yet nobody saw anything when questioned by police.

Raj Kumar Gupta’s No One Killed Jessica is an arduous retelling of the famous Jessica Lal case, where the son of an affluent politician shot down a model at a busy Delhi nightclub for refusing to serve him a drink and got away with it.

Rani Mukherji plays the hard-working, potty-mouthed, television journalist Meera who instigates a second investigation into the corrupted case. Although she pulls it off extremely well as an actress, Meera’s characterisation was not convincing.

Her dialogue was unrealistic and unoriginal, and the “tough girl journalist” jokes were not funny and obviously ripped off from other unsuccessful bitch comedies. The coolest character in this laborious adaptation of a true crime is the cop, played by Rajesh Sharma.

Jessica’s nerdy sister Sabrina (Vidya Balan), charred and haunted by the killing, delves into a deep depression for seven years, with whom the audience cannot help but empathise with.

In a city where power overcomes justice, the parallel lives of celebrity journalist Meera and clinically depressed Sabrina illustrate the effects of living in a fraudulent society day in and day out. It is only when Sabrina stops fighting for justice that Meera and her media empire begin.

Not only was the Jessica case perversed by bribes and death threats by crooked politicians, it was also ignored due to ego clashes in the newsroom. Meera and her co-worker are self-reflexive in the sense that they recognise themselves as attention-fiending individuals who only cover certain stories to create a certain public image.

Stories were selected not based on social or political relevance, but upon ratings and reporter profile boosts. Ironically, when the media decided it was time to take action that the murderer finally met justice.

Note how Bollywood filmmakers and producers assume that their primary audience are idiots. There is no subtlety. For each important point, this film gave three different, unnecessary examples to get the message across. While No One Killed Jessica is an important film in terms of the issues it deals with, it is certainly not a crafty, intellectual film.

- Manisha Anjali studied Film and English literature at the University of Auckland