Karan Johar and his words on last week’s terror in Mumbai
Filmmaker Karan Johar has finally updated his blog… and he has used this new entry to delve into his inner-heart and talk about the recent Mumbai attacks:
I was in New York when the news broke. For someone who’s been born and raised in this city, this is one of the most shattering things to hear. Glued to my television in a hotel room, I absorbed everything I saw and heard. Everyone had a sound byte. Everyone had to come out and express his or her opinion. The NSG should be applauded. The media should be praised. Certain politicians should be bashed. I agree with most of what’s already been said. Politicians — soulless and emotionless — were addressing the country while reading off of teleprompters. Can you not feel anything? Poorly conducted ‘press conferences’ announcing the death and casualty toll for foreigners with the speaker unable to successfully read a list from a sheet of paper, confusing Austria for Australia and making us look like illiterate idiots to a global audience.
I can’t offer a unique perspective on this yet because my grievances are primarily observations on humanity. The most common thing I hear from people is, "I want to do something, but what can I do?" The answer to this question has resulted in candlelight vigils and SMSes to wear black clothes or light a candle in our windows to show support and solidarity. It’s all very well and good because it is therapeutic. Our natural instincts veer us towards acting out — or at least towards being more active. In times like these, it becomes a challenge to look at the big picture. Terror attacks, massive loss of life — the reality eventually forces you to look at how we react individually and as a collective community.
But I had to ask myself, when was the last time we lit a candle for a relationship that ended?
I get a certain amount of criticism for making films that encapsulate interpersonal relationships and family dynamics. Some say I create melodrama over relationships but it’s because these are the everyday dramas of our lives. A few days ago, the problems plaguing us were issues concerning estranged relation- ships with family members that fight you had with your sister or that impending break-up with your lover. Our focus has now shifted to something so much bigger than us, but in order to fight this fear, in order to regain confidence as a city, we must strengthen ourselves. We must fix our problems at home before we can tackle attacks from outside.
In our everyday lives where maybe we went to Tiffin for lunch or did some window-shopping at the Taj, we now feel unsafe in our cars with tinted windows and our buildings with multiple watchmen. We now feel what a section of the city’s lower-middle class felt on July 11, 2006 when their security was threatened. Affluent members of society now prance around panels claiming Bombay is no longer safe. This city isn’t safe now, nor was it safe two years ago.
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