Wanting to leave home is not a crime

Satya won plaudits for direction, acting, for its realism. People left the theatres stunned by the raw violence. Yet, the film did not spark off a dEbate on the terrifying message, the central theme of Vastav as well, which is the despair of Mumbai’s lower middle class

It is appalling, the way the black market flourishes at cinema halls in the city. There are places where even ushers will sell you seats in empty houses at inflated rates. At the Bandra Gaiety-Galaxy-Gemini complex the touts approach you before you even reach the premises. There is not one but a whole army of them operating in the open. Apart from the high prices inflicted on patrons, this is hardly the kind of thing one expects at a premier entertainment centre which GGG with its two (or is it three?) new mini-theatres seems poised to be.

I had gone to see Vastav, the latest commercial-meets-alternative flick a la Satya. On the Mumbai underworld also a la Satya. If the latter had songs and Urmila Matondkar, the former has Sanjay Dutt (something of an ironic touch!). It is set in a Mumbai chawl — a fairly realistic one. There are a few characters, minimally etched but enough to convey a sense of community and social strata. Dutt is one of a gang of youngsters, the proverbial good for nothing, a drag on the family till, financed by his father’s provident fund, he sets up a pav bhaji stall. Business is good, the future seems set till Dutt and his best friend end up killing a local ganglord’s brother in self-defence. After that it is life on the run. Giving themselves up to the police appears to be a fatal option since the cops are in cahoots with the ganglord. An effort at conciliation fails. The only solution that offers itself is to take protection from a rival gang. Thus a new gangster is born. This, then, is Reality. The plot is neither new nor particularly well-conceived. But the film has some unusually bold features. The gangster’s deterioration is well-depicted. It is probably the first Hindi film to show the culpability of the police to the extent that it does. And the mixture of rawness and a huge commercial star in the main role creates a certain unexpected credibility. Like Satya, it makes an impact. The question is, what kind of impact?

Satya won plaudits for direction, acting, for its realism. People left the theatres stunned by the raw violence. Yet, despite the film’s resounding success, it did not spark off a dEbate on the crucial and terrifying message, the central theme of Vastav as well, which is the despair of Mumbai’s lower middle class. Films tend to select and exaggerate. Yet surely there is something about the utter hopelessness conveyed that needs to be publicly discussed? In Satya, for instance, the hero is an ordinary man trying to make a decent living in Mumbai. At every step, however, the odds stack up frighteningly leaving him with no option but to turn to crime. In Vastav too, the hero is first the victim of the local bully, then the police, who don’t spare even his parents, and the politician. It is suggested that jobs can only be procured through bribes. Crime seems the only succour.

Have things really come to this pass? Has civil society broken down so completely at the city’s lower economic levels? Has the criminal world become so firmly entrenched as an alternative? Aren’t these crucial questions for us to deal with? They are. And perhaps the reason why they aren’t being aired at all is because of the gap between that world and that of the English newspaper-reading middle class. A telling sign is the way the audiences respond both to Satya and Vastav — cheers and whistles from the lower stalls, stunned silence in the balcony. The two worlds are oceans apart.

Once in a while when the two collide as in, say, a Ramesh Kini gets killed, there is a bit of an uproar. And then it is separate ways again. Can we as a city afford such schizophrenia? Empathy apart, won’t there come a time soon when the rot will spread — inevitably and uncontrollably? For once, Bollywood is doing its bit. Perhaps it is time for the press and other fora of public dEbate to follow its lead.

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