Hazaron Khwashein Aisi

I recently had the good fortune of catching 2 very well made and thought provoking movies from the Bollywood. The first one titled 'Black Friday' took a behind the scenes look behind the Bombay (sorry have never quite like the sound of Mumbai) bomb blasts. The movie was made in a very objective and unbiased fashion exploring the underlying causes and main protagonists behind the blasts. It did not shirk away from taking any names be it of either politicians whose selfish and ulterior motives lead to the blasts in eventuality or of the members of the hardcore underworld who promoted and funded such a ghastly crime against India. Unfortunately this movie is yet to see the light of the day in India which is very unfortunate coz the whole underlying point of the movie was that you can’t blame the Hindus for the demolition of the Babri Masjid or by blame the Muslim fundamentalists for the bomb blasts. All it depicts is that both were crimes perpetrated by a select group of individuals with private agendas.
The other movie called 'Hazaron Khwahisein Aisi' took a look at India in the 1970's and the angst amongst the youth at the state of affairs in the country at that time. It depicts the dreams and aspirations of 3 very different individuals and how life teaches them many harsh lessons along the way while testing them as individuals and whether their so called morals and ideals stand those tests of time. The movie gave me an inside look at an India that was hitherto unknown to me. It showed me the turbulent times when students believed that it was up to them to change the face of India the way it was be it via means of a violent upheaval that resulted in a nationwide Naxalite movement. It showed how political power was misutilized by a group of individuals and how India as a democracy came down to its knees in the face an impending nationwide emergency. I thus considered myself fortunate to be born during a very progressive phase for India. I say that because even though I was born in 1980 my memories of India are limited to only visual impressions of my home till about 1985 and some audio visual impressions of my surroundings till early 1990's. I only began to understand the real goings on of India when I started following current affairs and expanding my vision of reading the newspaper from beyond the cartoon strips and sports page which should have been somewhere around 1992-1993. I think this was a time when India truly had started progressing in the true sense of the world in a direction that will lead us to be a true economic and global superpower. And coming back to the movies in spite of this truly great effort by these 2 directors the movies hardly got heard about in India as confirmed by both my Mom and Dad when I spoke to them last which is indeed a pity for Indian audiences coz these movies were made by Indian film makers with Indian themes keeping in mind an Indian audience. Also it will be gr88 loss for these directors coz two brilliant bodies of work will go down unrecognized in the annals of Indian cinema.