Why the average literate Indian should watch Madras Café
When I was growing up in college, ethnic war had been around
in Sri Lanka for years. Our country dispatched the IPKF to the civil war torn
country for reasons one never pays attention to when all one wants to do is try
and clear exams, move to higher studies and one day- earn a decent living for
oneself. Little does one realise that to be able to do
all this, Peace plays a vital role. Were it not for the peace that we middle
class Indians enjoy, living in our self made cocoons in cities, we would
today not be in a position to learn,
earn and spend selfishly on ourselves.
Sircar’s film takes you back to the start of, and in and out of those 27 years of black days
for both India and Sri Lanka, leading to colossal losses of life and property
on both sides. It makes you realise that peace and harmony for any citizen is
hard won, and that –to use the cliché’- politics makes for strange bedfellows. It
makes you dwell on what it would have been like for India, if indeed Sri Lanka
had been taken over by vested foreign powers. It makes you realise that the country’s
political decisions are not really made overnight, and that the real decision
making process is mostly a consequence of really long drawn debates amongst the
county’s intelligentsia.
I remember reading years ago,
that N.R.Narayana Murthy was one of the keynote speakers at the Indo Pak
business meet in 2010. He spoke then-as he speaks even today- about how peace
is many things: Harmony, non-violence, kinship, and more. Peace is the absence
of fear; the absence of terror; the elimination of mistrust; the end of suspicion.
Murthy spoke about how commerce and trade are the indisputable signs of a
healthy relationship between countries, and how trade must be put on the front
burner. But he also said that trade flourishes only when there is certainty
about a harmonious peaceful relationship. For this reason, political will and
backing between countries is always a must.
Sircar’s film too likewise brings
out why war is never a solution, and why political solutions are always the key
to progress. Politics too is not an easy
path, and people like us would do well to remember this. If nothing else, the younger generation –by this
I mean the masses in colleges in India and the masses in the thriving IT
industry would benefit by watching the film, because it forces one to think about beyond just joining an
NYSE listed CMM level 5 company- to think about why such companies and the
likes can even thrive in today’s “peaceful”
India. For once, mere mortals…people like you and me, are forced to think
beyond ourselves and our day-to-day lives, and in my opinion, this is the film’s
biggest victory.
