Mumbai is Burning. Again!

It seems we’re finally tired of singing paeans to the resilient spirit of Mumbai, which, simply put, actually means nothing more than a daily fight for survival. We can glorify it all we want, but for a large number of people in this city, living from day to day itself is such a huge struggle, the threat of terrorism seems only like an occasional blip on their already busy radar. Last year, an office boy who worked with me in a fashion magazine lost his life falling off an overcrowded local train just outside Kandivali station as he was heading to work. He left behind a wife and three little children and it didn’t take any ammunition to snuff out his innocent existence. Life and death is mostly a matter of chance in this heartless city – now, not only for the teeming masses who can do little to determine their destinies, but also the privileged, who may put themselves at risk merely by stepping out for a five-star dinner.




There’s no logic to survival, beyond the realm of accidental choices, or the presence of a supreme force orchestrating our lives, depending on your personal line of belief. Ask all those who miraculously escaped the terror attacks and warded off death by mere seconds entirely on account of random decisions that somehow took them away from the war zones at the Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels or kept them safe even in the face of extreme danger. Others paid the ultimate price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.




It’s only at times like these that we take a pause from our robotic existence to reflect on our inherent vulnerability. And naturally, it frightens us. For a long time to come, many of us will be looking over our shoulder wherever we go and will never feel safe no matter how much reassuring rhetoric flies around. We already know that our political system inspires absolutely no confidence, although we now have renewed faith in our security forces and brave police officers. Yes, the very same who, until days ago were being maligned for their communal bias, but were the first to go in and face the fire with their pathetic safety equipment.




Our politicians, on the other hand, are treading the thin line now it seems, and one hopes it is they, and no one else (especially not innocent citizens), who bear the brunt of the public backlash. Maharashtra’s chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s single largest achievement in office so far has been to hold on to his chair for as long as he has managed. He is, arguably, the least effective chief minister this state has ever known and it boggles the mind to imagine that such an uninspiring man is at the helm of affairs in times of crisis. Home Minister Shivraj Patil believes nothing that happens in the country has any reflection on his role as Home Minister, and hence, he can’t really be held accountable for such frequent and sustained terror attacks in several different cities. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hasn’t been able to assuage the citizens with his muted rhetoric summoning the ISI Chief to Delhi. L K Advani keeps threatening to scream POTA, POTA , and only just stops himself. Narendra Modi goes around making a nuisance by meddling around in Mumbai when we all know it didn’t take any terror attacks to eliminate thousands of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. Raj Thackeray, meanwhile, has either been hiding at home, or lauding the brave ‘Marathi’ policemen who lost their lives in the gun battles. The rest can go to hell for they’ve no business defending lives on his ancestral territory. Already, various politicians have put up hoardings around Mumbai saluting the policemen who lost their lives in the encounter – for a change, we don’t see their own smug mug shots plastered all over these unauthorized publicity hoardings.




We Mumbaikars have lived with the threat of terror for nearly two decades now, apart from innumerable other equally ominous situations like say, the annual rains or overcrowded public transport, or rash driving. Trains and buses have been targets of terror attacks at regular intervals. We all know that the country’s largest city is totally ill-equipped for crisis management of any sort and after each successive emergency situation, we’ve heard hollow promises from two-faced politicians, riding on the belief that people will forget all about what happened and get on with their lives in a matter of days. We’ve always proved them right by not asking questions, by not raising our voice, by not coming together towards a constructive citizens’ initiative to make the system accountable to us and not just in times of crisis, and actually getting on with our lives as though what has happened may never be repeated, or in fact, doesn't concern us at an individual level at all. It is up to us to make our elected representatives, the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the media accountable for the way they function, because everything they do, does impact our everyday lives in some way. If we, the educated and privileged don't do it, who will?




Lighting a candle in the window is merely another variation of the tokenism we’ve seen from our political brass. For the candle is sure to burn down long before the scars and the wounds of the hundreds wounded and bereaved even begin to heal.

Cinematic Integrity

Is there such a thing as cinematic integrity on the Hindi screen? It's a question worth reflecting on with some seriousness. When did we last watch a film that challenged the boundaries of the medium? A film that blended a crafty yet intellectually honest narrative with depth of character, visual finesse, effective editing and pathbreaking performances? In effect, a film that has the strength to stand the test of time? Something that can at least aspire for visions of greatness?

I happened to watch 'Sophie's Choice' made by Alan J Pakula in 1982 and 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' made by Siddharth Anand in 2008 on the same day for no specific reason. Unfortunately, I watched the former first and was firmly under the spell of Meryl Streep's astonishing turn as Sophie when I started viewing the other film. I forced myself to sit through this piece of trash just to reaffirm my belief that great cinema is not possible in Bollywood until filmmakers start feeling shamed by their collective debauchery. We cannot continue justifying our contemptible mediocrity in the name of commercial pressures and popular demand. Nor can we keep harping on our uniqueness to avoid unfavourable comparison with the rest of the world. 

Cinema is the same medium everywhere and its exponents are all trying to attract audiences to their work. Nobody makes films for themselves and nobody works in isolation. Hence weighing our work against others in the field is not just inevitable but absolutely essential for the healthy growth of our cinema. I pick out 'Bachna Ae Haseeno', but all of Yashraj Films' dozen-odd productions of the last three years (with the possible exception of 'Chak De India', which had some spirit, even though it took jingoism to the extreme and works, at best, as a genre film) are symptomatic of the callousness and blatant disrespect for cinema that's plaguing the entire Hindi film industry, it seems. You run through everything from 'Bunty Aur Babli', 'Dhoom', 'Fanaa', 'Kabul Express', 'Laaga Chunri Mein Daag', 'Aaja Nachle' to 'Bachna Ae Haseeno', and you see a uniform indifference towards plot, character, screenplay, visual texture and direction. Yes, they were all films catering to the masses. They all were meant to be pulp entertainment and hence weren't expected to leave a lasting impact on anyone. But what about integrity within the form of popular entertainment? Many of Yash Chopra's best-known films were true to the mainstream format with a formulaic plot, melodramatic exposition and just about serviceable visual language -- from 'Waqt' to 'Chandni', via 'Deewaar', 'Kabhi Kabhie', 'Trishul' and 'Silsila'. 

Yet, all of these films had characters who've stayed with us down the years, plot devices that kept audiences hooked at every turn, dialogues and music that lent depth to the drama and a sense of cohesiveness to each work that didn't make it seem like a replica of something else, nor like a showcase for some star’s antics or a circus of assorted scenes and songs thrown together haphazardly. Why just the Yashraj Films banner, everything of Hindi cinema I’ve seen in recent years is largely indifferent work (barring notable exceptions like 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' and 'Johnny Gaddaar') either put together as a marketing project or then, presupposing its own grandeur without any justification. 

Even in well-made films, there’s little emphasis on the film form, scripts are routinely unimaginative and worse, plagirised versions of older works or of foreign films, actors are entirely out of tune with the demands of working into a character (‘Dil Chahta Hai’ did improve their attention to physical detail, but there’s no such thing in Bollywood as building the ‘emotional graph’ of a character – I haven’t even seen the so-called ‘thinking’ actor Aamir Khan do it in any film), and directors are first, and above all, merchandisers trying to sell a product at any cost. From Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ashutosh Gowariker to Karan Johar, Farah Khan, Vipul Shah, Aneez Bazmee, Rakesh Roshan and Subhash Ghai (apart from everyone making films for Yashraj), none have produced a work of any notable measure. 

Filmmakers working with smaller budgets are either too conscious of their limited resources to really try something different or just aren't allowed the freedom to do so. It's shameful to learn that films like 'Bheja Fry' and 'Aamir' which have, in some sense, provided an opening for off-mainstream cinema are themselves derived from foreign sources.  Yet, we march along, scratching each other’s backs for sub-standard work that wouldn’t stand any critical evaluation, slam critics for not understanding cinema and being dismissive without a cause and pay actors salaries and attention they don’t deserve. Neither the Oscars, nor Cannes, Berlin, Venice or any other international film festival of any repute is likely to honour a Hindi film, leave aside finding it award-worthy, anytime in the future. So let’s just continue jumping in our tiny little puddle and pretend we’re splashing around in the ocean. And let others around the world celebrate cinema in all its glory and create works of art that’ll vindicate the medium, over and over again.