Pakistan, March 22 -- The incredible film on Pan Am airhostess Neerja Bhanot, who died while helping passengers escape from terrorists on the hijacked flight 73, is based in the year 1986, but the tragedy has greater resonance at a time when the slaying of innocents in the name of ideology has become an almost daily occurrence.

Ram Madhvani's movie, based on a screenplay by Mary Kom writer Saiwyn Quadras, focuses on the hours leading up to the attack and its immediate aftermath. The opening sequence inter-cuts between Neerja and her loving family in Mumbai on the night before she leaves for her assigned flight and members of the Abu Nidal Organisation preparing for the attack in Karachi. Neerja has overcome a violent marriage and returne...