‘A Wednesday' : A thought

I just finished watching the movie “A Wednesday” yesterday and I must say I was impressed. You see its not everyday that you get to see some sensible and impactful film-making and this was surely welcome. When I first heard the title I felt that this was some kind of sequel to the similarly titled and pretty recently released “Sunday”, which I must mention garnered pathetic reviews from critics everywhere. As a result, I obviously decided against applying my valuable time and thinking (oh yes watching movies does require thinking!!!!) on this piece. But after there was an unanimous positive review from all the four wings of my hostel (Yes, they are my most respected and trusted critics :P), coupled with the fact that boredom was killing me, I went ahead to watch it. Anyone who is reading this and has NOT watched the movie yet, STOP right now and come back after watching the movie. I feel this would make more sense to you then as compared to now.

So what I am writing here isn’t a review on the movie, you’ll find too many of those. Rather I want to throw open a question which I pose to each and every movie that I spend time on.

COULD ALL THIS HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE??

Simple enough, isn’t it?? After all the movies are a reflection of what is going on in the real world ( or that’s what I believe). So after watching it, this particular question is pretty interesting. Everyone (here I am assuming that you DID heed my advice and have watched the movie) simply loved the speech at the end of the movie delivered immaculately, courtesy Naseeruddin Shah. Let us ponder over what all he said about the whole operation.

The common man is fed up of terrorism. TRUE. I couldn’t agree more, ask yourself, when was the last time a news item on a bomb blast seemed sensational or striking to you. The recent event of 17 blasts occurring in just about an hour in a city makes bomb blasts sound like some mundane event.

The common man is scared of boarding a bus or train or going shopping. HMMMM.  Now I don’t expect many to agree with this viewpoint or rather I say NO. But think back to that moment when you first heard of the blast and I am sure that, maybe just for a fleeting moment, your heart did agree with this sentiment. It is but natural. That is the reason that governments across the globe have stepped up anti-terror measures ten-fold.

Now, here comes the real question. So should the common man take law unto his own hands?? This is what essentially the character in the movie has done, though in a pretty ingenious manner. I feel it is possible. Well the motivation is there. There is no progress in getting judgments on the criminals who are responsible and before you know there might be another Kandahar and the criminals walk away scot-free.

But again, it involves a lot of effort and time coupled with devotion to something which is purely destructive. I mean, the character attained a sense of mental satisfaction by carrying out his plan and not any material gain. Today, people simply cannot find the time for such actions. (DISCLAIMER:I am not encouraging ne1!!!!!!) A similar issue was raised by another movie though that was under the notion of corruption rather than terror. Yes, I am talking about the now a cult movie: RDB. The actions taken by the “common man” were pretty different in that case and somehow it appealed to me more realistically. Maybe it was because it was a brash move (attributed to youth) and seems a likely course of action for someone in pain and agony. But the case presented here was one of subdued pain and anger, something which I am pretty sure each and every Indian does relate to, and when it does come out-it comes out big.

So, to sum it up I’ll say that though the situation presented isn’t grossly impossible, it still doesn’t convince me completely to be a portrayal of how events would occur in real life but here is where I throw this open to you, the reader.

Do let me know…………………..

PS: Kudos to the movie makers…..i thoroughly enjoyed it and oh this is my first post so I urge the critiques to have some mercy :)