New York - Notepad

This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.

Plot Summary

Sameer (John Abraham), Maya (Katrina Kaif), and Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh) are university friends who part ways after their course at New York Universtiy. The 9/11 terror attacks changes everything when attitudes between communities change.

What Worked

• Background music during the Omar's interrogation.
• The subtle hints at how Sameer wins against the Americans and the South East Asians and yet salutes the American flag and calls himself an American.
• The fact that not much time is spent on any of the characters' backstory.
• Reactions of Sameer, Maya and Omar to the 9/11 attacks. Were so in-sync with what the character was like and what he/she was going through just before they saw it on TV.
• Roshan's (Irrfan Khan's) emotional blackmail tactics.

What did not

There are way too many loopholes that can't be discussed here 'cause they'll give the movie away. What can be discussed though -

• The need to explain some events when they could have easily done without them and the non-explanation would have made the film a little classier.
• How come people planning a conspiracy choose a place in the wide open?
• If Omar was a semester late and these were all smart students, how come they passed out of university together?
• Was this a post-graduation course? If so, how come one became an architect and the other a lawyer? If this was a graduation course - John Abraham was surely there 10 years too late.
• Are you really allowed to smoke in a FBI detention room?
• Why were the players of American Football piling on in a stack as if it were a game of rugby?
• How can any woman be so oblivious to how a guy feels for her!?
• Why was Maya suddenly confiding in Omar?
• There were loads of continuity jerks to accommodate a eye-pleasing shot, especially when reflections caught the makers' fancy.

Nitty-Gritty

• Katrina Kaif's dress at the school is really awesome!