Mumbai Meri Jaan

“Eh dil hai mushkil…Jeena yaha..Zara bachke…Zara hatke… yeh hai Mumbai Meri Jaan”…(song in the background)…

KK Menon asks his friend, “u know who sang this song”, friend replies, “Mohd. Rafi”, to which KK replies, “Kishore Kumar ko to koi suntaa nahi hai na”.

The movie, “Mumbai Meri Jaan”, “MMJ”, is a depiction of such complex emotions that come out at the time of atrocities and at times lead to other such future, counter atrocities.
First of all I give it very high marks on casting- every character has played just the character they were asked to and very beautifully; if there are two leading stars in a movie, that does not mean that they have to play a couple- Madhvan is a husband of never seen before actress and Soha Ali Khan is about to marry a character mostly seen in ads. It was refreshing to see this mix of characters. When you see this movie, you can’t really say that it belonged to Paresh Rawal or Madhvan or Soha or Irfan or “Kadam”. It belonged to them and to every other character.
But, Paresh Rawal surely wins here as the most skillful humorist in the Indian cinema and not just a comedian. And then, there is Irfaan looking just like your gali ka Chaiwala.

Secondly, MMJ very subtly captures, how Indians from all the sections of the society got affected by this bomb blast in Mumbai on 11th Sept 2006- an India loving professional who does not want to settle abroad in lieu of a better living, asks a fruit vendor not to offer polybags and commutes by local train to keep Mumbai green and less congested; a policeman on the verge of retirement, who suddenly realizes that he did nothing in his life to be worthy of and always been a spectator of the movie rather than an actor and wants his juniors to do something different in their careers; a junior policeman who questions the working of the system, the way it does and wants to make a difference; a TV news channel reporter, covering and making sensational stories, just as stories, suddenly being part of such a TRP hiking story herself, when she loses her fiancée; a struggling, young businessman who just goes the hardliner way, to safeguard his nation from “them”; a cycle-tea seller who is just amused by the money-praying, irreverent rich around him and finds a sadist way to take revenge on being thrown out by a mall retailer for trying Rs.10,000 ka perfume.

What this classic left me with, was a sick pain inside me even though it ends on a positive note- life moves on and should move on positively and don’t suspect them just because they are “them”.

Sick pain because I have been watching such movies, feeling bad every time and applauding the movie maker and the actors. But, is it all, such movies are made for?

And, will I do something only when something like that happens with me or to me?

Its just another TV story until YOU become a story, right?