Last Action Hero

Last few weeks I have been on a movie watching spree and before you get worried, I am not going to write how great Taare Zameen Par was. If any movie can bring home the Oscars, this would be it. But this post is about another movie, about another context. It’s about Halla Bol. If I am to choose two movies in the recent past that have rallied the Indians together, the first definitely would be Chak De India and the second, Halla Bol. People might be surprised seeing this comparison. While Chak De was a raging success all across the country, Halla Bol can best be considered only a moderate success, even though Pankaj Kapoor and Ajay Devgan might have given memorable performances. In fact, last time I had seen Pankaj Kapoor in such a brilliant role was perhaps in Roja. Frankly, he could have done a lot better in Blue Umbrella.

This is not a movie review blog. In fact, I do not know what this blog is about. But I know that this movie raised several questions in my mind. Do we as a society need an individual to lead us all the while? Do we need someone else to raise the first question? Do we as educated and law abiding citizens turn away our eyes from situations that evidently are wrong if they do not concern us directly? Why can’t I stand up to the gang of youngsters who were throwing litter all around the Marine Drive yesterday night? Why did I feel just disgusted and hoped for a policeman to appear and stop these people who seemed oblivious to the destruction of serenity that they were causing to my favourite place in Mumbai?

We are all afraid. Afraid that we will get into unnecessary trouble, afraid that the offenders in question might just be armed, afraid that 1 against many does not stand a chance. We create Manjunath Trusts and then forget about it in the day to day activities of our lives. We sit back on our cozy sofas and watch a reality show which promises to custom make our next leader.

Are we bad people? Definitely not, though Steven Levitt might try to make us believe that we are the reasons behind all white collar crimes. But we definitely have defined our boundaries. Boundaries beyond which it no longer remains our problem but becomes some one else’s. And it requires a hero to evolve from within us to lead us to break down these boundaries.

Today we all wait for the last action hero, the breaker of our boundaries.