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Cast: Paresh Rawal, Soha Ali Khan, Vijay Maurya, Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon, Irfan Khan
Directed by: Nishikant Kamat
Release date: August 2008 (India)

The device is common. Five people, five disparate lives. Converging unexpectedly. Director Nishiknat Kamat is not interested in breathing new life into the oft used and abused gimmick. What he creates could be the documentary style dramatization of the lives of any of Mumbai’s millions of inhabitants who lived through 11th July, 2006. When seven blasts tore through the compartments of suburban railway trains, killing hundreds and threatening to leave an indelible dark imprint on the city’s psyche. It was far from being the first terrorist attack on the city. And it doesn’t appear that it will be the last. But life went on. For Mumbai and India.

Mumbai is probably the Indian city most written about. Something about its all-embracing heart and unfathomable depths. Or probably it’s just bandstand and vada-pao, gangsters and Bollywood. In this city, Paresh Rawal is a lowly constable, on the verge of retirement after 36 years of uneventful service. Vijay Maurya is a cop just coming up through the ranks, a guy who wants to do his job the right way. Soha Ali Khan, a pretty twenty-something reporter, committed to ‘incisive’, inventive journalism from the country’s heartlands for one of those infinite news channels, which look towards Ripley’s Believe It or Not rather than Edward Murrow for inspiration. Kay Kay is a computer salesman, who’s as good as unemployed. Life hasn’t been fair to him and there better be someone to blame for it. The guy in a skullcap sitting across the tea-shop will do for now. Irfan Khan, a itinerant tea-vendor, roaming around the city on his ramshackle bicycle, gazing with wide-eyed wonder at the flashy malls and flashier cars. Living in the slums, the only thing he wants on a Sunday evening is to dress up with his wife and daughter in their best finery and spend an evening mingling with the rich and would-love-to-be-rich in those swanky stores. Madhavan, a symbol of ‘vibrant’, young India, a successful executive who rejects all opportunities to move abroad. For the love of his country. That’s at least how he would like to think of himself.

In a quarter of an hour, these characters come alive through broad brush strokes. With just enough details for the viewer to recognize these characters. As the person who was inadvertently crushing you in a packed compartment, on the fast train from Andheri to Chruchgate, while trying to locate an inch to place his feet. The blasts happen. The camera zooms in from the bigger picture to the smaller stories. While Soha Ali Khan thrashes around ideas for a good human interest story related to the blasts, her finacee is missing. Kay Kay manages to find fuel for his suspicion and imagination to burn brighter. Irfan discovers a novel way to get back at the rich for a lifelong of real and perceived slights. Madhavan begins to look at American suburbs in a different light. And Paresh Rawal?…Well…he goes on collecting his dues from seedy bar owners, going on night patrols and sharing little nuggets of homespun wisdom with Vijay Maurya. Trying to protect the young cop from his own helpless idealism.

The movie succeeds wonderfully in capturing minute details such as an animated discussion on football amongst guys whiling away time in a rundown tea-shop, the foul-mouthed banter at the police-station. And that’s important for a movie such as this which aspires to show us the rage, the grief, the hatred, the fear born out of tragedy. For what it’s about, it is a surprisingly calm movie. It doggedly refuses to take sides.

Paresh Rawal’s subtle performance in the midst of this great ensemble cast deserves a special mention. He lives with an unlikely blend of cynicism and faith. Indians have lived through almost two decades of terrorism. Without losing their minds or their identity. Is it courage? Or have we grown numb? I am not sure. But watching Paresh Rawal, you just might get an inkling of the secret behind Indians’ resilience.