K. GOVINDAN reviews Mani Ratnam's Bombay starring Manisha Koirala and Arvind Swamy cist Shiv Sena. Also that the police sided with Hindu mobs and controversially shows them firing into unarmed crowds which they have always denied happening.
it 1s esumatea tnat ovei 60 per cent of the Bombay police force sympathise with the Shiv Sena whose supporters led mob attacks on Muslims and the destruction of their property.
In this year's election they swept to victory in Maharashtra state as senior members in an alliance with the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party and also extended control over the Bombay Municipal Corporation.
Orgy of hate
The powerful and emotive scenes in the orgy of hate and bloodlust let loose will stay with the millions who have seen this film forever. However Ratman disappoints by trying to be even-handed in blaming both Muslims and Hindus for the riots.
Yet, as numerous reports have' documented, it was Hindu mobs who provoked and attacked Muslims who were the majority of the 1,500 killed, mainly by police bullets.
He omits mention of the Congress (I) who created the Shiv Sena to break the Muscle of organised labour in the 1960's and have pandered to communal sentiments from both Muslims and Hindus for decades.
The ending is totally unreal. Extremist leaders repent for their fanaticism, and peo-. ple form a human chain for peace. So all we are left with is the discredited politics of 'Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai' or 'Hindus and Muslims are brothers' and the message that we should think of ourselves as Indians first before personal identities.
Of regret too is the director's appeasement of Shiv. Sena leader Bal Thackeray, when he agreed to cut scenes portraying him critically to gain his permission to screen it in Bombay itself!
Such is his power. Now Muslim leaders are demanding the same concession and the film has been banned in a number of towns by Hindu and Muslim groups, as well as in Malaysia and Singapore.
Activist film-makers like Soma Josan and Anand Patwardhan have documented and analysed the riots better but lack, the mass appeal which Javed Akhtar's script and AR Rahman's soundtrack lend to the strong acting in Bombay.
Mani Ratnam has made an important statement in his art as much as choice of material, hi imperfections should encourage others to be bolder, for popular culture too is a contested space.