Being Salman: Bollywood’s own ‘Macbeth’ rolling out

Just two days ago, the faith of Indian citizens was restored on their judiciary. But, the faith was shattered when Salman secured a bail. Now, it's beyond conclusion that ‘Bhai’ has bloody hands. A convict is a convict.

After seeing several high profile politicians and actors (remember Sanjay Dutt?) bite the dust and get behind the bars for the crimes they had committed, when judiciary reigned supreme, people had heaved a sigh of relief. It was a very emotional moment for the fans of Salman Khan to see their beloved ‘Bhai’ being convicted of a crime he committed 13 good years ago. Now, now the ‘fate’, luck and numerology obsessed Bollywood would believe that the Chulbul Pandey who beat up all baddies in his superhit ‘Dabangg’ would have fought his bad luck too. The number 13, isn’t it considered unlucky? 2015 was the 13^th year after a man was crushed under the wheels of Salman’s swanky car on that drunken night. The dead one was a poor labourer. A non-descript one. He was the one who came to probably carry bricks and cement bags for that bangla to be built by a crorepati realtor, or run errands for a rich landlord. Whatever, it be; when he was gone, no one noticed that he was gone. Because the cameras were trained on the big bad ‘Bhai’, who was also known to have a golden heart!

After all, Salman Bhai Khan is the most eligible bachelor in the steaming hot Bollywood which gets a certain kind of high on cocaine, alcohol and certain kind of deaths.

Well, it pays to be a hero. Because then, you don’t have to speak much. You can only wear your shades and look like you are actually mourning. Your fans will shed the tears for you, and dry their own; celebrate the fact that your bloody eyes are hiding well behind the dark UV-protected glasses that could have cost a small country’s entire GDP. Well, when you are ‘Bhai’ with a large heart, your own largesse and being ‘at large’ is just something you often do.

But, look this way. Salman may be out on bail. And, chances are when you hire a lawyer like Harish Salve, you may never ever (just as assertively as Arnab Goswamy says) and NEVER EVER have to even visit the prison again, let alone spending a few days there. You can entirely forget about spending the sentence duration. Five years? Are you kidding us? Well, well, who told those lowly labourers to sleep on the pavement for god’s sake?

What, wait! Yes, why do majority of Mumbai’s labourers sleep on the pavement and get run over by cars? Do we know something about the man who died? Where was he working? Who had hired him? What was he working as? Did we hear anybody claim he was family or even a hired help?

The problem with a large migrant city like Mumbai is, life is cheap and death? That’s even cheaper. A working man, so long as he is working, is worth some value in currency. When he becomes a liability, there is no mercy left. Didn’t the city authorities run a background check into those labourers? Why they were not provided some shelter by whoever was using their services?

Why have we become so complacent about people who slave themselves and waste away on footpaths and pavements? Remember Arshad Warsi’s ‘Jolly LLB’? There is a touching scene in the film when while arguing for a poor labourer who died, and others who were injured and silenced by the system, Warsi stands up for them. He is chided by his opponent who says the fault is of those who sleep on the footpaths. Because they are not meant for sleeping.

Four stars for the script writer who says “Yes, the footpaths are not for sleeping. But they are not for driving either!” Applause! Applause!
The film wastes a golden opportunity to throw light on another aspect. That of migration labourers. Where do they come from? Who are they? Why do they live a lowly life?

Reality is, they come to toil in our houses. Build our gated communities, with swimming pool, club house and shopping mall. They never get to even understand what goes on inside these swanky places. They are the forbidden clan. They are apologies to the society. They are embarrassments which have to be swept under the carpet.

Because, unless they are dead, their existence has no value. And once they are dead, they just remain statistics. Nothing more, nothing less. Authorities will not even feel guilty about having murdered them.

In more ways than one, Salman is not the only ‘Macbeth’ in Bollywood with bloody hands. There are more like him. Whether it is Bacchan’s relative Sanjeev Nanda, industrialist Mahendra Khatau’s son Manish, hairdresser Nooriya Haveliwalla, or actor Rajkumar’s son Puru – they are lucky because they could buy lawyers. And the poor dead souls who died under these people’s rich didn’t have the luck smiling by them.
Too bad.