Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Bombay

Timestamp:

Jul 3, 2012, 6:37:02 PM (12 years ago)

Author:

Trupti

Comment:

--

Bombay

@@ +1 @@
+'''Bombay'''
+
+
+1995 134’ col/scope Tamil/Hindi
+d/s Mani Rathnam pc Aalayam dial Sujata
+lyr Vairamuthu c Rajiv Menon m A.R. Rehman
+lp Aravind Swamy, Manisha Koirala, Nasser,
+Kitty, Radhabai, Tinnu Anand
+
+
+Controversial melodrama set in the 1993
+Bombay riots following the destruction of the
+Babri Masjid by Hindu zealots in December
+1992. In a Tamil village, the Hindu Shekhar
+(Swamy) falls for a Muslim woman, Shehla
+Bano (Koirala). When the fathers of both
+oppose the marriage, the couple elope to
+Bombay where Shekhar gets a job as a
+journalist, while Bano gives birth to twin boys.
+Their personal story is intercut with growing
+signs of religious fanaticism around them led
+by saffron-clad members of the Shakti Samaj,
+an obvious reference to the Shiv Sena.
+Following the destruction of the mosque,
+Muslim militants kill two workers, and the
+Shakti Samaj leader (Anand), referring to Shiv
+Sena leader Bal Thackeray, leads his party into
+full-scale reprisals against the city’s large
+Muslim population. Much of the film’s second
+half recreates the riot scenes on sets that
+replicate their original locations with
+astonishing fidelity. The couple lose their two
+children in the riots, who are looked after by a
+transvestite. In the end, after a fervent pacifist
+plea by Shekhar, the family is reuinted and the
+secular-minded common folk of both
+communities pacify the rioters. The film was
+controversial even before its release, when
+Amitabh Bachchan, whose company ABCL
+distributed the Hindi version, sought
+Thackeray’s ‘approval’ of the film thereby
+further legitimating his position as an extraconstitutional
+censor. It was later attacked for
+its allegedly ‘secular’ credentials, its
+misrepresentation of widely reported events in
+order to blame the Muslims for having started
+the riots, and for its tendency to equate the
+‘voice of reason’ with Hindu majoritarianism.
+Ravi Vasudevan (1996) has published an
+extensive critique of the film and on its
+reception.
+
+[[Film]]