Trial by Fire–A Personal Ordeal

Trial by Fire, based on the memoir written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, explores the lack of legal accountability and justice following  the Uphaar fire in a Delhi movie theater  in 1997.  Fifty-nine people were killed, mostly families treating themselves to an afternoon at the movies.  The Krishnamoorthy couple lose both of their teenage children in the tragic disaster.  

What follows is a first-hand look at the frustration of the victims investigating the Uphaar theater fire. Neelam organizes other victims’ families to advocate for a fair trial.  They are up  against the billionaire industrialists, the Ansal brothers,  who owned the Uphaar theater as well as  much of the major real estate development in India.

In the face of painful personal sacrifice and an overwhelming cataract of grief, Neelam powers through with an exhausting determination to fight for justice.   The judicial and political establishment deflects her every inquiry but  Neelam is energized by each setback to achieve justice.   The corruption of government officials  and the callous indifference to the loss of life by the Ansil brothers is  realistically portrayed .

Threatening the status quo and the privileged who live in a system where everyone else is disdained,  fungible and disposable, Trial by Fire  is an angry portrait of dismissal of the lives of the marginalized and vulnerable.  The infrastructure of the powerful in society is not easily dismantled; in the Uphaar fire case, taking over twenty years to closure.

Trial by Jury does not have the ending one would hope for or desire, but it is realistic and factual.  The location in Delhi invites the viewer to see  into the living rooms of the characters.  While a little sluggish and slow-paced towards the end, this is a quietly tragic docudrama about coalitions against judicial inertia and the hope for change.

Availability:  Netflix streaming

Note:  The Ansil brothers sued Netflix this February in an attempt to impose an injunction against the release of Trial by Jury but the Supreme Court in India rejected their case.  They later withdrew their lawsuit rather than appeal,  See the February 28, 2023 news article in NDTV.