7 / 11 - A View from two worlds

I have been seeing a lot of movies now a days. Surprisingly all hindi and even more surprisingly most of them good and thought provoking. Bollywood does have the occassional Ardhasatya, Krantiveer, Rang De Basanti etc. to try and pry open the eyes of our dead souls to what is happening around us. They did - momentarily. None of the thoughts depicted in these movies are revolutionary. These are movies made by normal people who live in the same society as us and see and face the same problems as us. These are people who may be better privileged than some of us with regards to money power, but they have the same fears as the common man. The fear of the omniprevalent uncertainity of life.....
I saw Mumbai Meri Jaan and A Wednesday on consequent weekends. There could not have been two equally brilliant movies based on the same event with such views which were poles apart.

Mumbai Meri Jaan tells the tale of 5 distinct individuals who were in Mumbai when the 7 /11 train blasts took place and how they come to terms with the aftermath of the shock. How they pick up the pieces left over from the debris of the blast and get used to moulding their lives around the attack. It will remain as an indelible memory in all their minds but they have moved on in life.... You easily identify with all the characters in the movie, your heart goes out to them and you feel a personal triumph when they get over the terror and return to normalcy.

A Wednesday!, on the other hand deals with the same theme and tells us that we have got so used to being attacked and battered and bruised and have become such great friends with the fear of being killed every time we step out of our homes, that we have become incapable of any reaction. A stupid common man, that's what the character played by Naseer calls himself. A stupid common man, who is so busy in trying to run his life that he has no time or resource to try and protect it. We have become really adept in picking up the pieces as shown in Mumbai Meri Jaan and getting on with life. As he says, there is quite a bit of house cleaning to be done in India and we have got used to waiting for someone else (preferably the "authorities") to come and deal with it. As the old cliche goes, if you want to clean the gutter, you will get dirty in the process. We as a generation have evolved so much that the prospect of even a stain in our pure white lives is a blasphemous thought. You will sympathize & empathize with Naseer's character who is aptly nameless thoughout the movie, only referred to as the common man. You will understand and agree with his emotions. It's just his action that you cannot digest. Not because they were morally wrong. Just because we do not have the courage or the conviction take the same drastic steps. He might have been just another character in Mumbai Meri Jaan who chose to react differently from the other 5 characters....

Don't we all think that keeping politicians and terrorists locked up in jails for decades and feeding them with our hard earned tax money is total injustice? When each and every one of the 1 billion odd of us know who were behind each of the major communal / terrorist riots and economic scandals which have shaken the very foundations of the Indian way of life, why don't we do anything about it?
Have we all become like whores? No woman gets into this particular profession willingly, but once in, they beecome resigned to their "fate" and move on with life, maybe even beginning to enjoy their way of life....Sound similar to our lives... your and mine??