From the Irish Times:
While there is of course a chance that one of these films, sorry, titles, may turn out to be as good as United 93, I highly doubt that the time is right yet for Bollywood to tackle recent events. This despite some very good pre-attack films that dealt with terrorism, such as A Wednesday and Mumbai Meri Jaan.It has emerged that Bollywood film-makers have been queuing up to register film titles based on last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, prompting suggestions of insensitivity and bad taste.
According to the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association in India’s film capital, Mumbai, at least 18 titles associated with the November 26th attacks, in which the city’s Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels and a nearby Jewish centre were besieged by gunmen, have been registered so far.
These include: 26/11 Mumbai Under Terror; Operation Five-star Mumbai; Taj to Oberoi; 48 Hours at the Taj and Black Tornado.
According to Ujwala Londhe of the producers’ association, the first title was registered as early as November 28th, a day before the siege was lifted following firefights between national security guard commandos and the gunmen.
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1 comment:
Dear Mr. Sychowski,
while I do understand the knee-jerk reaction to such titles being registered, it seems unfair that a moratorium is being proposed on films tackling terrorism. Granted the people who make such films - or films on violence and terrorism - are usually very low on sensitivity (think Apurva Lakhia and 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' which ended up glorifying gangsters instead of the police whose POV the film's narrative stems from or RGV himself who has made gangsters and their lingo ubercool) I wanted to draw your attention to the other side of the picture - namely, a lot of films dealing with subjects of terrorism are being changed or shelved out of fear of hurting the public. It seems immaterial that by the time it was up for release it would be a good 9-10 months from now, extremely long for public memory. Any longer, and we’ll go into denial. We can’t just bury our heads in the sand and wish terrorism away. And we surely can’t carpet-bomb it away either.
What people have to understand is that there is Bollywood, and thankfully now, the Mumbai Film Fraternity. Bollywood is where the money and the power is, but it's the Mumbai Film Fraternity that comes up with 'A Wednesday' (which would have worked better if there was a counterpoint to the vigilantism that was more rhetoric than actionable and intelligent) and 'Mumbai Meri Jaan', not to mention 'Aamir' and a spate of other films being made. And if it hasn’t caught your eye yet, do watch ‘Black Friday’, a sterling effort at a difficult subject. And yes, it is a very clear divide, between Bollywood and the Mumbai Film Fraternity. One sells stories, the other tells stories - and we know only tellers are worth listening to; sellers are merely agents screaming prices, hawkers of old stuff they polish and resell to every sucker there is willing to buy old wine in a new bottle. And believe me, in this country thirsty for dreams, there are millions.
When the Mumbai Film Fraternity looks at the events that happened in November, they want to tell the stories of the ones who lost their near and dear ones, the ones who lost their lives fighting for a thankless people, how it changed us as humans, how it brought us together, what drove us apart. It wants to tell these stories because it wants us to never forget the sorrow, the hope, the fear - the sacrifice that ordinary people made, never wants us to cuss and swear at traffic intersections when we are stopped for speeding because the men of the law are doing their job. The policemen who earn salaries almost as much as our building watchman does and firemen who earn just about enough to escape being below the poverty line were the ones who became our heroes, and the fraternity wants to honor that memory and make sure children who grow up now have new heroes and idols, another point of view on the police other than treating them as an inconvenience, a butt of ridicule and jokes. Unfortunately, to upturn the cart, when Bollywood sees the same events, it sees the Box Office appeal of an action star, the plot of a foreign film that can be juxtaposed onto these events, the sectarian and communal patterns that in this world of today don’t exist anymore other than in sick minds and eyes. Such is the state of affairs and so it will remain.
I'm glad you said 'Bollywood' but there is another, poorer cousin too - and I hope people don't stifle it simply because the rich one is running people over with his swanky new Porsche. We are a fraternity because we are brothers in arms, united in an effort to just be heard, nothing else. People wanting to tell stories the way they were meant to be told, maybe not the way people usually want to listen to them. So we are OK with being told to sit in the corner and not eat until after all the guests have left. We have a problem when you try and tell us what to say and how.
I sincerely hope BIG or other companies that you are associated with bring their muscle to the table and push for the stories that we have to tell - they have to be told, or then we shall soon, forget, and stand in line for a revenge drama, another absurdist escape romance, another foreign locale comedy. Now is the time.
What happened was horrible beyond words and expression - but just as important is what we take out of it, because that is what will define us. We need to heal.
With every corny and insensitive title registered, somewhere in the fraternity an angst gets deeper and stronger to tell a great story, respectfully and honestly. And for every sick attempt at trivialising this for money, there is one great surge to glorify this for the human spirit to sustain itself in times of need. United 93?! Give us time, sir, and we’ll better that in the blink of an eye. And how! Because great tragedy does one of two things - it either drains you completely, or floods your soul, fills you up.
The dams shall be breaking soon.
God bless and glad to see you were standing first in line at the theaters. I, too, was in line..we shall overcome.
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