Missing The Target

9 December 2008.

My outrage is better than your outrage. My pain is more real than your pain and my grief is the biggest and best. Ever. So just don’t mess with me! OK? 

That was the loud and clear message sent out by the India that took to streets, sms, e-mails and online petitions. An urban elite found their activist voices - for a while at least. Now we’re back to work. Because after all working for a cause isn’t real work for most. It’s a hobby or pass time that crops up at an emotional crest. The equilibrium of this lot is in a much lower adrenalin zone. And when at equilibrium a lot more can be digested such as replacing R. R. Patil with Chhagan Bhujbal as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. He is the same man who was made to resign five years ago because of his name cropping up in the Telgi scam. Telgi is old news so Bhujbal is accepted without any resistance. If 3 years later there is another bomb blast he will resign and a Vilas Rao will be pulled out of the woodwork since public memory would have cooled off by then and his current incompetence would be a blur. Meanwhile Narayan Rane’s tantrum is a disgraceful politicization of terror. A seat vacated as the fallout of an act of terror is a chunk of meat that’s being fought over by a species that do things like fight over pieces of meat.

But there is little or no resistance to this politics.

The Mumbai attacks exposed urban India. Self-righteous, indignant outraged rants bombarded us until the dazzle of assembly elections in 5 states dimmed the candlelit vigils.

Put someone in a crisis situation to see what he or she is made of. How have we come out of that mess?

There’s a lot of hate flying around. I’m sure everyone reading this column has received invitations or sms’s or emails for - Facebook communities - online petitions – mailing groups asking us to condemn and revile everyone from Shivraj Patil to Ram Gopal Verma to Barkha Dutt to Pakistan to “media role”.

We have Mohandas Pai the HR head of Infosys saying that the govt. should allow them (the company or individuals? Am not sure what he meant) to be armed so they can take care of themselves since the govt. has failed! A Salva Judum the nation over?

Simi Garewal informed us of the brilliance of George Bush’s strategy of attack since this is war and we should do the same. She even directed our attention to those dirty slums and jhuggis who are displaying green coloured flags.

Mukhtab Abbas Naqwi pointed to lipstick painted and powder dabbed faces at candle lit vigils calling them no less than terrorists and Shobha De told him she is proud of her lipstick and powder and looks and car and lifestyle honestly earned and enjoyed.

On TV channels the atmosphere looked ripe for a Bush like character to push through a homeland security measure and “India Inc” and aam aadmi would have supported it whole hog.

The Muslim community in Mumbai is overcompensating by refusing to allow the dead terrorists burial on their land. I thought in death everyone is given a decent send off no matter how despicable they were in life.

So the crisis brought India closer together and established us as united, sensitive and humane?

The one sms doing the rounds that I found particularly unintelligent and counter productive was the one that was almost a threat to film-makers warning them against making a movie about “our grief”. It went something like - “Dear Mahesh Bhatt, Ram Gopal Verma, Apoorva Lakhia, Rahul Dholakia. We don’t want a realistic film about  Mumbai attacks and our grief.. etc”.

Ever wondered why after so many years the world has not forgotten the holocaust and will not allow a repeat? Its because of films, music and art. Do you know more about the persecution of the Jews and Nazi Germany thanks to the PhD paper you submitted or because of Oscar winning Schindler's List? Public memory about such events is not shaped by a tale told at a protest march. Its by watching the despicable but brilliant Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List, the delightful Roberto Benigni making you smile and cry at the same time in Life is Beautiful, by sitting through an over rated - The Pianist and by watching naked women and men prance around on stage in the long running musical set in Berlin– Cabaret. So to shut artistic release (yes Ram Gopal Verma and Mahesh Bhatt too is art) because my misery is more real than your misery and should not be subject for entertainment is plain wrong. To make this subject out of bounds is doing an M F Hussein on them. And no it doesn’t make it okay just because they make bad films and the M F Hussein attacks came from saffron clad louts and this clamp down comes from civil society.

Whatever our generation or those younger know about the horrors of partition and riots at the time is because of films and TV shows like Buniyaad, Tamas, Garam Hawa, Gadar, Earth, Pinjar.

If future generations are to recount and remember the horror of Gujarat riots it wont be because of civil societies niceties (they forgave Narendra Modi a long time ago. He is the good M after all according to Ratan Tata whose hotel has been devastated by some bad Ms.) It will be because someone decided to rent and watch a DVD of Rahul Dholakias Parzania, ditto for the Punjab terrorist problem and Gulzar’s Maachis and Munich about the massacre of the Israeli Olympic squad or a Do Bigha Zameen on farmer displacement by greedy high caste zamindars. The grief of those victims and friends and communities was just as real, the pain and outrage just as genuine.

It is art, installations, paintings, literature, poetry and cinema that keep something in public consciousness and part of popular culture. To make that the target of the misdirected hate we see flying around is a disservice to the cause.

And Ram Gopal, Mahesh Bhatt and gang need to grow a spine to complement their thick skin. All of them went into defense mode saying that they would not even dream about making a film on the Mumbai attacks and they feel pain and passion of Mumbai etc etc. I thought the best art and writing came from passion. So use passion for a change and not formula and say you WILL make a film on this event. I’ll watch. I guess asking you not to make a bad film would be asking too much so I wont ask that. But please consider anyway.

Its amazing how quickly we turn the venom on each other at a time of crisis and that’s what separates the women from the girls or men from the boys (this gender political correctness makes sentences unnecessarily long you know). So please don’t waste your time (if you are one of those) sending me the millionth sms or email or facebook invite asking me to hate everyone. I always have.