A Wednesday

Today I read a piece in Indian Express by Khalil Mohommad (the director of a beautiful movie called Tahaan). Here was an article where he accuses A Wednesday of being a violent and disgraceful movie which indulges in community bashing. The writer has specific objection to dialogs like "Cockroach ko bahar fekna hai" or the fact that Naseeruddin Shah didnt disclose his name. He also is unhappy with the critics for overlooking such "moral obscenity".

I want to humbly ask the esteemed personality why does he have to specifically mould and twist and dig out imaginery stuff to create more mistrust and acrimony in the already divided atmosphere. I know I am no one to argue on the moral implication of a movie. But the job he does is merely create an imaginary hypothesis and then proceed to prove that that hypothesis is vindicated by the movie. In other words, its like creating a preconceived notion about something and then going all out to prove that you are right. Isn't that quite childish! I used such means to justify my actions when I was a child (in fact even now).

What wrong is it that he doesnt reveal his name. Big deal! If the person had a Hindu or a Muslim name, the same writer would have even been opposed to that. And removing cockroaches from your house! My god! He writes some senseless stuff justifying his thought and thus proving that it referred to a specific community. I am educated enough to understand most of the articles but seriously either he wrote in Shakesperean English or I forgot my English. It hardly made any sense to me.

But this is one of the worst habits many Indians have i.e. to prove they are victimized and isolated and harshly treated and the entire world is conspiring against them and their community. And I would like to clarify that this refers to people of all communities (Or else there will be some hidden meaning revealed from this too).

The world at this moment requires an atmosphere of mutual trust. It requires certain compromises. Certain myths to be shattered. Certain initiatives. People should be willing to tolerate people who are dissimilar to them. And for heaven's sake, we should stop reading between the lines.There are many useful things in the world that require lesser brains than deciphering what a book or a film or an article or a speech actually meant.