Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Millennial love, Mumtaz and Marathon Musings

Meet

Meet. Make Out. Break up. Repeat?

Is director Shakun Batra, whose newest release ‘Gehraiyaan’ has become the talk of the town, a millennial Basu Bhattacharya? (HT)

Is director Shakun Batra, whose newest release ‘Gehraiyaan’ has become the talk of the town, a millennial Basu Bhattacharya?

Who can forget the late director whose intense films about man -women relationships, like his critically acclaimed and much awarded trilogy Anubhav, Avishkaar, and Greh Pravesh, way back in the Seventies had demonstrated the same willingness to deep dive into the fault lines that lie between two people in the name of love.

Like Batra, Bhattacharya had also engaged the top stars of his time such as Rajesh Khanna, Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmilla Tagore, to illuminate his oeuvre. This is expedient on many levels. Not only does it assure filmmakers with funding and audiences, but it works well for the stars who always keep one eye firmly on the annual acting awards lists while signing on these off beat, artistic projects that showcase their talents.

But of course, the main difference between Basu’s trilogy and its expose of what transpires between a couple in love, and Batra’s Gehraiyaan is that while the former is about married couples, who share a universe of connections, histories and bonds, in Batra’s offering, the two couples who form the crux of the plotline –haven’t tied the knot yet- and in fact have clocked in no more than approximately 9 years between them as couples!

Could such an intensity of emotion really be felt by couples who betray each other, break up and make up as if they are choosing their shorts and tees for their next weekend getaway to Alibagh? Is this misplaced passion the aberration of a poorly fleshed out script-or a sign of the new normal amongst today’s young and restless, and how they choose to conduct their lives?

For a non-millennial, it’s a chilling thought…

If you love me, tell me now

She was the snub –nosed, vivacious darling of the masses in the Sixties and Seventies, and last week, when a recent video of former Bollywood heroine Mumtaz surfaced online, featuring the dewy -complexioned retired star, now a living overseas and a wife mother and grandma, in a candid cameo, it wasn’t surprising that viewers went ‘awwww’ .

Yesteryear sirens after all colonise a special corner in the hearts of their fans, and to see them healthy, happy and attractive, imparts great joy to their legion of followers. Which is why a glowing Mumtaz, surrounded by her doting daughter and grandchild, speaking affectionately about her post- Bollywood life, away from the arc lights, has delighted viewers.

Her appearance is also indicative of the changing fortunes of erstwhile silver screen stars. To be sure, before awareness of mental health wellbeing, the importance of self-care, financial planning and family support had become customary, the plight of yesteryear heartthrobs, who had once dazzled public imagination was often heartbreaking, with many ending up alone, impoverished and often the victims of neglect or unscrupulous relatives.

Indeed, there was a time when nearly every neighbourhood in Mumbai, especially in its northern suburbs was populated by at least one such case of an erstwhile much celebrated legend eking out their remaining years in penury or abandonment.

Mercifully, thanks to more opportunities for employment, social media communication and the industry itself coming forward to take care of its own in their times of need, there seems to be less of such instances.

Incidentally, in her video Mumtaz makes an important point: Goaded by her daughter to make herself more accessible to her legion of fans on social media, the legend tells them sweetly: “If you love me, tell me now. Not like in the case of Lataji, where once she has left, every one queues up to say how much they loved her…”

We agree.

Marathon City

Sources tell us that the team behind the Tata Mumbai Marathon has been working round the clock to try and get the event (launched in 2005 and since then a much-awaited annual event on the city’s calendar) ready for a possible end March resumption. The weekend of 26th /27th March is the most likely possibility for holding it, we hear.

Those in the know say that though authorities in government are keen to give the go ahead to the jamoboree of wellbeing and athletics, the prospect of garnering negative publicity if in any way it hampers the city’s steady recovery against Covid -19, is holding it back. What they fear is that a strident opposition which wastes no time in seizing opportunities to embarrass the current dispensation will use it as one more arrow in its arsenal of attack.

However, given the massive logistics and planning that such an event calls for, the marathon’s organisers say that this dithering is making the window to launch and deliver the event, thinner and less likely with each passing day.

Sad, because besides the obvious benefits to health, tourism, city pride and philanthropy, the marathon has served as a great unifier, ensuring that on one particular day every year, regardless of class, community and social divides , the city congregates as an entity, with runners, spectators, viewers, volunteers, fund-raisers, state and civic authorities, drawn from every strata.

Roads are a great leveller, often the threads and strings that tie our emotions to places. Homesick and away from Mumbai for a period of ten years , I found that the recurring image of the city that would tug at my heartstrings, was not one of my homes, or even my neighbourhood, but a random road in Colaba, which in fact had played a negligible role in my life in the city.

But miles away from Mumbai it represented all that the city had meant to me, a symbol of its familiarity and welcome.

The Marathon more than any other event for one precious day allows us to vacate our positions of pelf and pomp, our apartments, offices and cars, and congregate on Mumbai’s roads, en masse and in unison, to pay homage to those very streets, roads and thoroughfares that have silently sustained and supported us; especially through some of the most challenging days these past couple of years, when we were locked up, indoors and alone.

For that alone, authorities be they in the ruling dispensation or the Opposition, ought to put aside their differences and ensure the smooth resumption of one of the city’s much-loved traditions.

Bring back the Mumbai marathon we say: It’s time Mumbai takes to the streets to usher in a great celebration of hope and health and unity once more.