Click to play videoMumbai: Waterlogged roads, traffic jams, Bollywood, Bombay Stock Exchange, vada pav – all these elements make up Mumbai, the city that has always been an inspiration for writers, poets and filmmakers. So now get ready to say ‘hello Mumbai’ in all its grittiness and its glory.
With films like Mumbai Meri Jaan, Mumbai Chaka Chak, Mumbai Cutting, A Wednesday and Halla all hitting theatres in the weeks to come, the city that never sleeps is all set to be showcased in a variety of shades.
First up will be Mumbai Meri Jaan directed by Nishikant Kamath who has based his film on the 7/11 serial blasts that rocked the city's lifeline – the local trains.
“We being a part of the city have seen the city go through unfortunate tragedies. I have been witness to the ‘93 blasts, I was not in Mumbai during the train blasts, but I must have called 500 people to find out if they were ok. I realised the impact that it had on me when a city and its people suffer,” Kamath said.
Bollywood's first porte manteau film a la Paris Je T'aime - Mumbai Cutting is a series of 11 short films on the city, one of which attempts to look at Mumbai through the eyes of a non-Mumbaite.
Filmmaker Shashank Ghosh said, “I would get Englishmen and Americans to come down and see what was under our noses, which we could not see. So an outsider sees Mumbai at its simplest level with a lot of clarity. It’s like a concrete jungle, you live here in an extreme manner than anywhere else in the country.”
While Mumbai Chaka Chak has the Bombay Municipal Corporation and Bollywood work together to clean up the city.
Meanwhile, debutant filmmaker Jaideep Verma's Hulla incorporates another interesting aspect of the city most Mumbaikars would empathise with – the time taken to commute from one place to another within the city.
“There is a Mumbainess in the characters, they are eddy because they are always in a state of hurry. 20 per cent of the film has the main couple just commuting from one place to another in the car,” Verma said.
And if you still want more of Mumbai then get ready to watch Naseeruddin Shah as a terrorist who is out to blow up the city with Anupam Kher close on his heels in A Wednesday.
(With inputs from Somen Mishra)
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