A movie of this genre is probably a sin. Maybe even criminal. See, it doesn’t make sense to heighten people’s expectations and then offer them something so mediocre that the crowd actually ends up believing they got what they expected. The ‘stupid’ common man probably gets convinced he is stupid. This is one thing about such ‘very’ ‘daring’ movies; they run the long difficult race, they fight the demons and the devils, they take you to the edge, and then, and then very simply drops you down. And then you are hanging on a rope, and maybe even in thin air, wondering what the hell was that all about. Think more, and you will understand that this is what these guys do; they play the safe game over and over again. They will go all the way till there, that crucial point, but before anyone can brew up a controversy they shall come running back; become pro-government, become anti-terror, become pro-police, pack those bags full of critical reviews and awards and box office money and nation-wide recognition, and then come rushing home.
On the other hand, the stupid common man, in addition to having lost his ticket money, is taught two very important things. One, that he is stupid and no amount of politicization can make him think for himself unless self-ordained teachers like Shah and Hassan take the dais, and two, that terrorism is the only answer to terrorism. Whether the common man agrees to what Shah and Hassan does in the movie is completely a different question. Nevertheless, he is told that he would most naturally do what they did, should he witness likewise blasts. In other words this is ALL that a common man can do; use ‘hi-tech technology’ to gang up with the police and the government to kill Gundas and terrorists. And no no, he can’t analyze why they became gundas, or how the government has acted and still can act as terrorists, or even why it is always the Muslim who is always scrutinized. The stupid common man has no choice but to ‘help’ the government or rather ‘teach’ the police how easy it is to simply ‘eliminate’ anti-social elements. Amen! Come all you stupid common people, lets all go bomb up ‘terrorists’; we can soon become a happy nation.
Hassan is perhaps a little way ahead than Shah; he mentions, I am told, that terrorism is the only way to combat terrorism. No, let me be more than just sarcastic. He is probably the best gift the Indian Government (State, central, current, former and future) has ever got. For the sake of those so many children who die everyday, for the sake of our dear Tamils who died in Srilanka, for the sake of millions who have given up on their dignity and lives, does this man even know what the heck he is talking about? Does he think the state governments, which clean ‘roach-infested’ houses do so in clean empty airports or uninhabited deserts? O probably the ones who died in their very houses when the bombs blew in Srilanka were nothing but dummies. To me, this strategy is nothing short of a convenient brahminical stand that does not deal with blood and shit and garbage and corpses in their daily lives. Isn’t it all so easy to say, ‘hey let me sit here, make a few phone calls, create some stop-gap sensationalism, bring in some media attention, and tell the world that bombing away is the only way out’? Besides why bring in the media when all that Shah and Hassan was just kill the guys? The whole thing could have still got accomplished without that twenty-something electric-baba reporter coming in. And come to think of it, why are such reporters always shown as pink-shirt wearing women who use their brains only as an occasional hobby? Not to mention that she also gets easily influenced, thanks to very her little politicization.
But among all these, what is most saddening about this movie is probably its perspective on terrorists who happen to be Muslims. I hear Hassan has done some patchwork by including a terrorist who has a Hindu name. Bravo? No, I think the real issue is not about who has what religion. It is really about understanding why it is always the minorities and the oppressed who take up arms, and as to why their existence is being threatened every time by the upper classes/upper castes/majorities. It is the bloody trend that needs to be observed and addressed. And it is NEVER a solution to kill the so called ‘noise-makers’. In short, what Hassan and Shah suggest is no way different from the
Probably, the only credit I can give to this movie is the fact that it brings to surface the power a common woman or man could have in this country. But of course it dwindles into nothing but empty drama in the course of it. The common man or woman for sure can do more, and better; O heavens, we aren’t as stupid as the movie wants us to be.
