Christmas in Florida
Faraaz Hussain (Zahan Kapoor) was supposed to fly to Malaysia with his family, but he reached the embassy just as it was about to close, and due to some hiccups, they were not able to get their visas…
Christmas in Florida
Faraaz Hussain (Zahan Kapoor) was supposed to fly to Malaysia with his family, but he reached the embassy just as it was about to close, and due to some hiccups, they were not able to get their visas stamped. Faraaz's mother, Simeen (Juhi Babbar), wanted him to go to Stanford to do his master's, but Faraaz wanted to stay in Bangladesh and work there. This is a very common thing in any developing economy where affluent families want to send their kids abroad to get the best education. Most of the time, these students do not come back to their homeland because the kind of life they are able to lead in a foreign land is far better than what they would have in their own country. Faraaz was grateful for whatever his country had given him, and when the time finally came to work for the Upliftment of the people, he didn't want to abandon them and contribute to the economy of a foreign country. Long gone are those days when a 23-year-old boy was ready to sacrifice himself for the independence of his country. If today, any person said that they were purposely not seizing an opportunity to go and study in a first-world nation because they wanted to work for their country, they would definitely be mocked and called delusional. Faraaz knew that he could have an opulent lifestyle in the United States of America, yet he felt that it was his duty and responsibility to work for the betterment of his own people. Nibras Islam (Aditya Rawal), Rohan Imtiaz (Sachin Lalwani), Meer Saameh Mobashir (Jatin Sarin), Bikash (Harshal Pawar), and Khairul Islam (Ninaad Shaunak Bhatt), members of a terrorist outfit, had taken Holey Artisan Cafe, in Gulshan, Dhaka, under their control, and according to them, by doing so, they were reviving jihad in Bangladesh. One chef manages to escape the initial purge and runs out. Rajiv (Godaan Kumar) is their handler. Nibras and his team kill all foreigners and non Muslims, but vow not to harm any Bangladeshi Muslims. Rajiv has a day job as a simple call center executive. Faraaz Hussain was also trapped inside with two of his friends, Ayesha (Reshham Sahaani) and Tarika (Pallak Lalwani). Nibras knew Faraaz from before when they played football together, which is why he gave him the option of leaving the premises, though he was not allowed to take his friends with him. The girls were in an attire that Nibras considers Unislamic and refuses to let them leave. Eventually the police respond to the news of gunfire from the Bakery. The terrorists open fire at the cops. The cops call for reinforcements. Deputy Commissioner Mushtaq (Aditya Mahajan) & boss (Danish Iqbal) take tactical control of the situation. The commissioner leads an assault team right from the front of the cafe. A gunfight erupts and the police take heavy casualties. Nibras turns off the lights inside the cafe and lines up the hostages against the windows. Sudhir (Aamir Ali) is Tarika's father and meets Simeen just next to the barricades as they try to get some news of what is going on inside the cafe. SWAT team arrives and is led by RAB Officer Benazir (Kaushik Chakraborty). Benazir admonishes the commissioner for his stupidity in leading a front on assault on the cafe in which 12 officers lost their lives. Benazir assigns his officer Manirul Islam (Rohan Roy) to lead operations from there on. Benazir also plans an assault, but the PM calls and asks the commissioner to negotiate with the terrorists. The terrorists believed themselves to be messengers of God who had been sent to purify the land and teach people what it meant to be a true Muslim. They believed that if they accomplished their mission, they would be welcomed in paradise and have an afterlife that had all the pleasures of the world. Had the terrorists been uneducated, Faraaz would have still understood why they had such flawed ideologies, but when people like Nibras, who were well qualified, behaved in such a foolish manner, he didn't know what to tell them or how to make them see the reality. Benazir asks the officers to cut off the internet when Nibras circulates photos of the carnage inside the cage via Rajiv. He also asks the IT team to hack into the CCTV inside the cafe. Nibras uses the cafe WiFi and broadband network to continue communicating with Rajiv. Faraaz just couldn't take what Nibras was blabbering about Islam, and he couldn't stop his urge to tell the guy that he was not only an ignorant person but also a puppet in the hands of the people who were least bothered to maintain the sanctity of their religion and just wanted to use him as a pawn. Nibras told Faraaz that he knew everything about Islam and that he was trying to protect his religion from non-believers. Faraaz knew that anything he said against the terrorists could lead to his death, but he just couldn't stop himself. He told Nibras that his interpretation of the Quran was totally flawed and sarcastically commented that if he had actually read the holy book instead of listening to the twisted interpretation of his leaders, he would have had a better understanding of what the Prophet wanted. Nibras said that he didn't have any option other than to pick up arms since his people were being oppressed and killed by the first-world nations. Nibras was proud of the fact that, because of them, Bangladesh had opened a new front in the war, and the world had come to know that the Bangladeshi Muslims were ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their religion. Faraaz tried to make him understand that this was not how he would get to a solution and that this vicious cycle would keep repeating itself again and again. Faraaz made a very interesting point when he said that people misunderstand the fact that their identity came from their religion, when in reality, it came from their culture. He pointed out that a couple of boys in his group also had Hindu names, and that didn't mean that they were any lesser Muslims; it just showed the kind of culture they came from. Faraaz told Nibras that he was merely a bully with a gun whose intentions were not as worthy as he thought them to be. In the morning, after the morning prayers, Nibras releases all the hostages voluntarily. Faraaz, along with Ayesha and Tarika, were shot dead by Nibras and his men as Ayesha was a Hindu. Nibras gave Faraaz the option to leave the premises, but he decided to stand by his friends and not compromise on his principles. The RAB and SWAT move in and gun the terrorists down. The target of the terrorists were non-Muslims, and if they had any doubt about a person's religion, they made them recite "Surahs and Ayats." 22 hostages were killed by the terrorists, most of whom were foreign nationals. The terrorists made sure that the Muslims got food and water, while they did not provide any such things to the other people. The terrorists made sure that they treated all the Bangladeshis with the utmost dignity and respect, and they also tried to tell them the motive behind conducting such an attack. The hostages who were released told the authorities that the terrorists said that they didn't want their own people following the Western lifestyle because they considered it sinful. The government of Bangladesh launched "Operation Thunderbolt," and that's when the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Special Weapons and Tactics Division (SWAT) took matters into their own hands. The forces took the entire area under control in less than 50 minutes, and all five terrorists who were inside were killed in the exchange of fire. The terrorists had obscurantist ideologies, and they wanted the entire country to think, and act like them. There was actually a person named Faraaz Hossain, stuck inside the Artisan Cafe during the 2016 attack, who refused to come out and decided to stay with his friends. Faraaz was awarded the Mother Teresa International Memorial Award posthumously in 2016 for taking a stand against violence and showing the world that there was still some humanity left. Faraaz showed people how wrong they were in stereotyping the entire Muslim community, as not all people following Islam were terrorists.
Christmas in Florida
Comedy
Film Details
Faraaz Hussain (Zahan Kapoor) was supposed to fly to Malaysia with his family, but he reached the embassy just as it was about to close, and due to some hiccups, they were not able to get their visas stamped. Faraaz's mother, Simeen (Juhi Babbar), wanted him to go to Stanford to do his master's, but Faraaz wanted to stay in Bangladesh and work there. This is a very common thing in any developing economy where affluent families want to send their kids abroad to get the best education.
Most of the time, these students do not come back to their homeland because the kind of life they are able to lead in a foreign land is far better than what they would have in their own country. Faraaz was grateful for whatever his country had given him, and when the time finally came to work for the Upliftment of the people, he didn't want to abandon them and contribute to the economy of a foreign country. Long gone are those days when a 23-year-old boy was ready to sacrifice himself for the independence of his country.
If today, any person said that they were purposely not seizing an opportunity to go and study in a first-world nation because they wanted to work for their country, they would definitely be mocked and called delusional. Faraaz knew that he could have an opulent lifestyle in the United States of America, yet he felt that it was his duty and responsibility to work for the betterment of his own people. Nibras Islam (Aditya Rawal), Rohan Imtiaz (Sachin Lalwani), Meer Saameh Mobashir (Jatin Sarin), Bikash (Harshal Pawar), and Khairul Islam (Ninaad Shaunak Bhatt), members of a terrorist outfit, had taken Holey Artisan Cafe, in Gulshan, Dhaka, under their control, and according to them, by doing so, they were reviving jihad in Bangladesh.
One chef manages to escape the initial purge and runs out. Rajiv (Godaan Kumar) is their handler. Nibras and his team kill all foreigners and non Muslims, but vow not to harm any Bangladeshi Muslims.
Rajiv has a day job as a simple call center executive. Faraaz Hussain was also trapped inside with two of his friends, Ayesha (Reshham Sahaani) and Tarika (Pallak Lalwani). Nibras knew Faraaz from before when they played football together, which is why he gave him the option of leaving the premises, though he was not allowed to take his friends with him.
The girls were in an attire that Nibras considers Unislamic and refuses to let them leave. Eventually the police respond to the news of gunfire from the Bakery. The terrorists open fire at the cops.
The cops call for reinforcements. Deputy Commissioner Mushtaq (Aditya Mahajan) & boss (Danish Iqbal) take tactical control of the situation. The commissioner leads an assault team right from the front of the cafe.
A gunfight erupts and the police take heavy casualties. Nibras turns off the lights inside the cafe and lines up the hostages against the windows. Sudhir (Aamir Ali) is Tarika's father and meets Simeen just next to the barricades as they try to get some news of what is going on inside the cafe.
SWAT team arrives and is led by RAB Officer Benazir (Kaushik Chakraborty). Benazir admonishes the commissioner for his stupidity in leading a front on assault on the cafe in which 12 officers lost their lives. Benazir assigns his officer Manirul Islam (Rohan Roy) to lead operations from there on.
Benazir also plans an assault, but the PM calls and asks the commissioner to negotiate with the terrorists. The terrorists believed themselves to be messengers of God who had been sent to purify the land and teach people what it meant to be a true Muslim. They believed that if they accomplished their mission, they would be welcomed in paradise and have an afterlife that had all the pleasures of the world.
Had the terrorists been uneducated, Faraaz would have still understood why they had such flawed ideologies, but when people like Nibras, who were well qualified, behaved in such a foolish manner, he didn't know what to tell them or how to make them see the reality. Benazir asks the officers to cut off the internet when Nibras circulates photos of the carnage inside the cage via Rajiv. He also asks the IT team to hack into the CCTV inside the cafe.
Nibras uses the cafe WiFi and broadband network to continue communicating with Rajiv. Faraaz just couldn't take what Nibras was blabbering about Islam, and he couldn't stop his urge to tell the guy that he was not only an ignorant person but also a puppet in the hands of the people who were least bothered to maintain the sanctity of their religion and just wanted to use him as a pawn. Nibras told Faraaz that he knew everything about Islam and that he was trying to protect his religion from non-believers.
Faraaz knew that anything he said against the terrorists could lead to his death, but he just couldn't stop himself. He told Nibras that his interpretation of the Quran was totally flawed and sarcastically commented that if he had actually read the holy book instead of listening to the twisted interpretation of his leaders, he would have had a better understanding of what the Prophet wanted. Nibras said that he didn't have any option other than to pick up arms since his people were being oppressed and killed by the first-world nations.
Nibras was proud of the fact that, because of them, Bangladesh had opened a new front in the war, and the world had come to know that the Bangladeshi Muslims were ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their religion. Faraaz tried to make him understand that this was not how he would get to a solution and that this vicious cycle would keep repeating itself again and again. Faraaz made a very interesting point when he said that people misunderstand the fact that their identity came from their religion, when in reality, it came from their culture.
He pointed out that a couple of boys in his group also had Hindu names, and that didn't mean that they were any lesser Muslims; it just showed the kind of culture they came from. Faraaz told Nibras that he was merely a bully with a gun whose intentions were not as worthy as he thought them to be. In the morning, after the morning prayers, Nibras releases all the hostages voluntarily.
Faraaz, along with Ayesha and Tarika, were shot dead by Nibras and his men as Ayesha was a Hindu. Nibras gave Faraaz the option to leave the premises, but he decided to stand by his friends and not compromise on his principles. The RAB and SWAT move in and gun the terrorists down.
The target of the terrorists were non-Muslims, and if they had any doubt about a person's religion, they made them recite "Surahs and Ayats." 22 hostages were killed by the terrorists, most of whom were foreign nationals. The terrorists made sure that the Muslims got food and water, while they did not provide any such things to the other people. The terrorists made sure that they treated all the Bangladeshis with the utmost dignity and respect, and they also tried to tell them the motive behind conducting such an attack.
The hostages who were released told the authorities that the terrorists said that they didn't want their own people following the Western lifestyle because they considered it sinful. The government of Bangladesh launched "Operation Thunderbolt," and that's when the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Special Weapons and Tactics Division (SWAT) took matters into their own hands. The forces took the entire area under control in less than 50 minutes, and all five terrorists who were inside were killed in the exchange of fire.
The terrorists had obscurantist ideologies, and they wanted the entire country to think, and act like them. There was actually a person named Faraaz Hossain, stuck inside the Artisan Cafe during the 2016 attack, who refused to come out and decided to stay with his friends. Faraaz was awarded the Mother Teresa International Memorial Award posthumously in 2016 for taking a stand against violence and showing the world that there was still some humanity left.
Faraaz showed people how wrong they were in stereotyping the entire Muslim community, as not all people following Islam were terrorists..