New York released on 26 June 2009, and proved to be a commercial success, becoming the sixth-highest grossing Hindi film of 2009. It received positive reviews from critics upon release, with praise for its direction, screenplay and performances of the cast, with particular praise directed towards Abraham, Kaif and Mukesh's performances.
In the United States in 2009, the FBI arrest Omar Aijaz, a young Muslim man originally from Delhi, India, after finding guns in the trunk of a taxi cab he owned. Omar is then taken into custody and interrogated by FBI Agent Roshan, also a Muslim man originally from South Asia who has been living in the United States for twenty years. Roshan wants to know everything about Omar especially his link with Sameer "Sam" Sheikh. Omar then discovers that he was set up by the FBI to force him to spy on Sam, a former college friend of his whom he has not seen in seven years and who the FBI believes is a terrorist. In the process, Omar discovers that Sam has married Maya, a mutual friend whom Omar had a crush on in university and finds out that they have a young son, Danyal.
Roshan orders Omar to tell him everything he knows about Sam. The film then flashes back to September 1999, when Omar begins his studies at the New York State University. He is befriended by his international student counselor Maya and learns that though she was born and raised in New York, she is fluent in Hindi because of her mother's interest in Bollywood films. Omar also meets and befriends Sam, an American Muslim who is not only well-spoken, good at sports and academics but is also fluent in Hindi due to the fact that his father is a professor of Indian studies. Over the next two years, all three become inseparable friends and gradually Omar falls in love with Maya. When Omar realises that she and Sam are in love, however, he distances himself from both of them as he also has feelings for Maya. Their carefree days end with the onset of the September 11 attacks, or 9/11.
After finishing his story, Omar agrees to help Roshan (rather reluctantly), if only to prove that both he and Sam are innocent. He reunites with Maya and Sam, who is now an architect and stays in their house, all the while spying for the FBI. Omar learns that Maya is a civil rights activist who is helping one of Sam's employees, Zilgai overcome his experience as a former 9/11 detainee. Zilgai was eventually released due to lack of evidence and has been having difficulty adjusting back to normal life.
As time progresses, Omar feels satisfied that he can find nothing to warrant the FBI's suspicions because when Omar hints to Sam that he wants to be a terrorist, Sam reacts as though he wants a peaceful life. However when Omar is ready to leave, a series of events forces him to reconsider as he meets the same suspected convicts Roshan had mentioned to him earlier. Omar is even ordered by Sam to shoot one of them for betrayal which he reluctantly does. In the process, Omar learns from Sam that ten days after 9/11, Sam, who was on the way to meet Maya, was arrested and detained for a period of nine months at the Guantanamo Bay prison as a suspected terrorist simply because he took pictures of the twin towers for an architecture paper he was doing for the university weeks before the attacks and purchased a ticket for his cousin at a Kiosk at Kinkos. This charge was eventually considered wrong by everyone, including the FBI and Roshan. Though he was eventually released due to lack of evidence, the impact of being detained and tortured permanently changed Sam in ways which are difficult for those surrounding him to understand, leaving him more mellow, somber and with feelings of deep resentment and hatred towards the FBI. Omar thus finds that Sam ultimately resorted to plans for terrorism as a means of revenge. Sam wanted to tell Maya about his terrorism plans but was unable to do so because she was pregnant with his child hence she doesn't know of her husband's reality.
In addition, Maya is unable to help Zilgai resolve the trauma of being a detainee. After a routine traffic stop escalates and an NYPD police officer gives Maya a very rough full-body search, Zilgai becomes agitated. He drops Maya at her home and eventually kills the police officer the same night. After being declared a fugitive, Zilgai leads the police on a long chase ultimately ending in his suicide.
When Sam comes to know of Zilgai's death he cancels his attack and instead decides to work on a new building contract with his sleeper cell employees including Omar. Meanwhile Maya sees Omar with Roshan and discovers that he is with the FBI and might hurt Sam and tells him that she knows about Sam. Omar tells her that Sam has cancelled the attack so if they can show the FBI guarantee to Sam explaining that they won't kill him, maybe he'll leave terrorism but before the guarantee can be issued, Roshan and the FBI want to meet Maya.
When Maya meets Roshan in the FBI building, Sam, Omar and Sam's employees start their cleaning work. While Omar and Zaheer are in the drainage pipes, Zaheer accidentally drops something from the pipe brushes and Omar discovers it to be the same phone bomb that Sam showed everyone meaning that Sam had never cancelled the terrorist attack. Omar kills Zaheer, gets out of the drainage and informs Roshan that Sam is about to bomb the FBI building.
The climax of the film rests upon the attempts of Maya, Omar, and Roshan trying to prevent Sam from committing an act of terrorism by telling him that if he perpetuates towards terrorism, others will suffer as he has. Finally convinced, Sam surrenders and aborts his attempt to bomb the FBI building. However, the moment he drops his cell-phone (which was originally intended as a detonator for the bomb) he is shot and killed by FBI snipers. The cell phone falls to the ground without activating anything. Maya, who was running toward Sam in grief, is also killed by stray gunfire and Omar, bereft of speech, breaks down.
Six months later, Omar has adopted Danyal, and Roshan has received commendation for aiding in the anti-terrorism cause. Omar is comforted by Roshan who explains to him that everybody was right in their place, but the timing was wrong. As for Sam, the path he chose killed him. Everybody has moved on after 9/11, as it's high time. Roshan explains to Omar that both Sam and Maya will always be alive in Omar's good memories and in his heart. Their friendship will always be alive because of the good memories that they had spent together. They reconcile with each other. The film ends with all three of them going out for pasta and a side note describing the after-effects of 9/11.
New York explores the aftermath of 26/11. In a June 2009 interview with the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), director Kabir Khan argued that the film "is based on part of the political canvas of 9/11, but it speaks of prejudices after the great human tragedy. It is a definite and very relevant subject about post-9/11 prejudices that have increased after the attacks [...] We have in fact divided time in a pre- and post-9/11 world in the film to highlight its obvious repercussions in times to come. The repercussions of the attacks are still very strongly felt globally and will continue to do so."[3] Khan continued to state that the film had the full support of the New York Film Commission, " as it is not an anti-something film. It is a very balanced story and not a jingoistic film."[3] In a separate interview with IANS, actor John Abraham argued that, "in its own strange way, New York begins where Pakistani film Khuda Ke Liye ended. That's the interesting part of the film [...] Each director has his own way of interpreting and researching the plight of legal detainees." Abraham continued by suggesting that this is why Khan and Shoaib Mansoor offer different interpretations of these events in their respective films. The plot of New York is similar to ''The Greater Good'', the twenty-first episode of the first season of ABC TV series Lost.[4]
Production
Production began in September 2008 and filming lasted over a period of 100 days. Most of the shoot took place in New York although some of the scenes which took place in New York were actually shot in Philadelphia. New York is the first Hindi film to have a production schedule there.[5][6] In preparation for his role as an American Muslim of Indian origin, Abraham studied the Quran.[7] Khan had to submit his script for approval from U.S. authorities before making the film. He stated: "We had to submit the script to seek permission to shoot in Guantanamo as well as in the States and we got their green signal to go ahead very easily. The film may be about 9/11 and what happens post it, but they did not object to our theme and did not even raise any questions. The US officials were very cooperative and we shot for around 3 days at this high-profile prison."[8]
The soundtrack of New York was released on 10 June 2009. The songs and the theme featured in the soundtrack are composed by Pritam Chakraborty, Julius Packiam and Pankaj Awasthi and the lyrics are penned by Sandeep Shrivastava and Junaid Wasi. Packiam composed the film score. The remix version of "Hai Junoon" used in the end credits of the film is sung by K.K. and Monali Thakur and not available in the original soundtrack.
New York grossed a record Rs. 35 million during its first 3 days in India, with theatres at their highest occupancy since January at 80–85%.[9] During its first week, it ranked #1 at the box office in India[10] and grossed Rs. 618.9 million worldwide, and was declared a hit.[11] Its total gross in India after a 6-week run was Rs. 155,480,643.[12]
New York's opening weekend was highly successful in India and the Middle East. It also proved popular in Australia and did well in the UK and U.S. Of its opening in India, Khan commented: "I always believed that New York will be a word-of-mouth film which would open on a decent note and then show an increase in business with every passing day. When I was told by friends and people from industry that it had opened to a housefull response in the very first show at so many places across the country, even I was taken aback."[13] It became the sixth highest-grossing film of 2009, grossing Rs. 577,500,000.
Critical reception
New York received highly positive reviews from critics upon release.
Subhash K. Jha gave New York a rave review arguing that New York "is what cinema in contemporary times should be, must be, though it seldom is" and designates it "an important film" which "cares about the prejudices that have taken over the world. Jha also states that, "stereotypical portrayals of the cultural diaspora are fortunately rare in this piece of contemporary art which has plenty of heart, a heart that never overflows in an embarrassing torrent of emotions."[14] Devansh Patel, film critic for London's Hounslow Chronicle, gave New York 5 out of 5 stars stating that it is, "the most thought provoking movie Yash Raj Films has ever come up with."[15][16]Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave it 4 out of 5 stars, describing New York as, "an extremely taut and highly emotive piece of political drama [...] topical, meaningful, and entertaining, all at the same time."[17]Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four out of five stars arguing that New York is "one of the finest films produced by this premier production house, Yash Raj [...] the screenplay is its biggest star, without a doubt. Given the fact that New York isn't one of those routine masala fares, Kabir has injected songs only when required. Cinematography is striking."[18] Joginder Tuteja of the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) calls the film "a must-watch" and gave it 4 out of 4 stars. He states: "When a hardcore commercial flick gets a standing ovation and a huge round of applause at the end of the show, you know that there is something definitely right that the director has done. In this regard, Kabir Khan can take a bow because he has done exceedingly well in making a film that is not frivolous, has a message and still carries enough commercial ingredients to reach out to masses as well as classes."[19] Jayant of the Hindustan Times argues that comparing New York "to Mark Pellington's Arlington Road would be grossly unfair. If anything, this is a much better movie than that 1999, part-spooky conspiracy theory. The central theme itself is closer to Shoaib Mansoor's Khuda Kay Liye (2007), and you can sense how the superior execution here makes all the filmmaking difference."[20] Additionally, Shekhar describes New York in NDTV as, "an A-list film that gets a straight A."[21] Sandhya Iyer of the Sakaal Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars arguing that "New York manages to be gripping, thanks to an excellent screenplay. Most importantly, the story has the right mix of realism and drama – one that Kabir Khan unfolds with quiet confidence."[22] Mathures Paul of The Statesman states: "Finally, here's a film that entertains and makes viewers think."[23][24][25][26][27][28]
Most Aesthetic Representation of a Foreign Destination
Yash Raj Films
Won
Home Video
The DVD for New York was released on 8 August 2009.[35] Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave the DVD four out of five stars. The DVD includes (but is not limited to) 2.5 hours of special features such as: "Making of the Film," "Deleted Scenes," "New York Special – Zoom TV,"
"The New Yorkers – CNN-IBN," and a number of music videos.[36]
