RGV's 26/11 film a flop idea

IN Media Practice | 12/03/2013

Documenting terror strikes as they happened is a test of the director’s mettle and the audience’s patience. More so, when the film depicts what the audience knows. National Award-winner Ram Gopal Verma released his film The Attacks of 26/11 this month. When the scars are as deep as those inflicted by 26/11, making a movie on the Mumbai attacks was never going to be easy.  Like his other recent offerings, the movie met with a tepid response.

Most would remember that Verma was condemned for his insensitivity when he visited The Taj hotel three days after the attacks. He was accompanied by the then Chief Minister, late Vilas Rao Deshmukh and his actor son Riteish Deshmukh.

Undeterred by criticism, irrepressible Verma went ahead, recreated those 60 hours of anxiety and panic when Mumbai was hostage and the nation watched in horror. In the aftermath of 9/11, a number of remarkable movies were made to document attacks on the twin towers, which changed the world in more ways than one. Why did Verma’s movie not work when several others made on the attacks of 9/11 were critically acclaimed?

Ram Gopal Verma has chosen a documentary style of narration. The film begins well in capturing the eerie night as fishermen at Mumbai’s Machhimaar Colony see 10 young men with large rucksacks disembark from an inflatable speedboat. Playing Joint Commissioner Rakesh Maria, Nana Patekar narrates the sequence of events to an inquiry commission in the film. Surprisingly, the committee of investigation has no relevant observations or queries for Patekar. Interspersed with Patekar’s restrained monologues, we get to see body parts being sliced, bullets being sprayed and people slipping on pools of blood. Depicting gore, mutilated bodies and wailing babies is perhaps not the best way to recreate a horrific tragedy. And a director of Ram Gopal Verma’s repute, who made brilliant movies like Satya, is expected to know that. Hailing the police force as heroes, the movie steers clear of highlighting the interference of politicians, the immaturity of the media and the inadequate infrastructure to fight terror. The director fixes his gaze on a media-fed image of a gun-toting merciless Kasab, the repetitive killings at Leopold Café, Cama Hospital and CST station, minus the horror of Nariman House. Yes, songs are an integral part of any Bollywood flick, but songs like ‘Atanki aaye hai’ in a movie as solemn as this dilutes the sense of purpose. The final nail in the coffin comes from the didactic tone of the police commissioner, who gives us sermons on secularism and religion.

The fact is that we live in times of live television.  The terror attacks of 9/11 and 26/11 were captured live, as the world watched the drama unfold on television. Devoid of compelling story narration or a new perspective, watching the horrific events again can be a harrowing experience for any wounded nation. Who wants to re-live a national tragedy?

Perhaps it makes more sense to use the event as a backdrop and narrate a new story, which can capture the viewer’s interest. The 1993 Oscar-winning movie Schindler’s List directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg was based on a novel, Schindler’s Ark. The backdrop of the movie was the holocaust but the compelling storytelling made this movie a winner. Ditto with Life is Beautiful, another Oscar-winning movie by Roberto Benigni where a Jewish Italian book shop owner uses his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. World Trade Centre was another disaster drama gem by Oliver Stone from the perspective of fire-fighters. The film celebrated the courage and endurance of a nation in the face of terror.

It is not easy to document an incident already watched live on television. Perhaps a better way is to produce a well-researched documentary.  Michael Moore produced the highest grossing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 by critiquing the media and the regime by revealing several unknown facts of the horrific terror attack.

Coming back to Ram Gopal Verma, the talented director is known for making movies based on real-life crime. Some crimes like the Aarushi murder case, the Neeraj Grover murder case or the Nithari killings were events which did not play live on television. However, these events were milked sufficiently by the media. Despite the reservations of Neeraj Grover’s parents, Ram Gopal Verma went ahead and made the movie A Love Story, based on the story of an aspiring model Maria Susairaj who is facing trial in the murder case. "What excited me about the story were the emotions involved. It was love which drove them to chop the victim's body. It was love which turned them into such dreadful souls," Verma said.

Crime can inspire Verma to make movies, but his movies have to excite the audience. Isn’t that the entire purpose of making cinema?

The debacle of The Attacks of 26/11 has led netizens to talk about the Dan Reed-directed short documentary Terror in Mumbai which was released in 2009 and co-produced by HBO and by Channel 4. Being highly controversial and disturbing, the movie depicts real audio intercepts between Pakistani handlers and terrorists, criticism of media, failure of intelligence agencies and the shortcomings of the police.

The Attacks of 26/11 depicts known events without compelling storytelling, which worked against the film. Perhaps a fresh approach or a new perspective or a fictional event woven in the backdrop of the 26/11 saga could have made for more engrossing cinema.