Shanghai is a metaphor

Shanghai is a city, a metropolis, a financial capital, a global economic hub. Shanghai is in China but the word Shanghai is a signifier for India.

Shanghai is an attempt by the political class to divert our attention from the immediate problems to a promised future, a transformation. We are sold the dream of a swanky Shanghai like city where prosperity envelops all. And it is all planned for the future. A future, which when it comes will not hold them accountable. A future near enough, but far enough so that people forget as well. Rome was not built in a day they say. But it was also not build by the using the famed Indian jugaad.

Shanghai is a dangling visual smokescreen. Take a look (at the image below) at what happened between 1993 and 2010 in Shanghai. It is this transformation to a gleaming economic hub that rivals the first world that so seduces the transforming third world. Shanghai is a metaphor.

It is the Promised Land that the politicians like to promise in a safely distant future .This future is rounded up into nice sounding numbers – 2016, 2020, 2025. And when time inches towards these years they push it back to another nice sounding year – Twenty Thirty, Twenty Forty what say? Because somehow,we never think of future being imperfect and dystopian. We always hope the future to be better. We have done so from the past. We continue to do so now. Where is the progress, is this the progress we hoped for and were promised in back in 1995. Wasn’t 2012 supposed be the year when every village in India was electrified?  And now, in 2012, we are still debating nuclear power when we are so many megawatts short of electrifying even our cities that it is embarrassing. Who do we hold accountable?

Any social commentator would agree that India of today, of 2012, throws more bewildering contradictions than say it did in 2000. We are young and aspirational, but then we are also sceptical. We have tastelessly designed flyovers and an underbelly right beneath and around it. The malls are swanky and the earth just outside it is murky, the road leading to it potholed. We have grandiose and leaky socialist schemes in a capitalistic economy. Cross subsidy that skews the supply-demand and market dynamics. And then there’s an audacious proposal of regulating a democratic medium like the internet. The models and actors in ads get paler and whiter even as thankfully, it is a sultry Freida Pinto and swarthy Irfan Khan who have a foothold in Hollywood.

As a nation we have regressed in the last 10 years – the traffic, the civic amenities, our open values, what we can see on television, what can be said on it and what is beamed on it. We can all bring out the largest democracy cloak, but hey we are not a mature one. We can’t laugh at ourselves; we are offended by things which we should bother too much with. The people with sense of humour are on Twitter and those numbers don’t total to many a number.

The irony is inescapable when we are promised maglev trains when people are crushing themselves in Bandra-Churchgate local trains. It makes us smirk at the politicians who do not know the ground realities that the middle class go through, we are sceptical when we are promised a Shanghai in India.

If you can’t save a Kolkata, if you continue to see Bangalore crumble, if you go on as usual as Mumbai bursts to seams, what are you promising to convert to Shanghai ? Cities cannot be transformed easily and briskly.5 years is not enough, 10 years should see considerable progress but 20 is enough if you have the will, even in a democracy. Maybe we should emulate Hong Kong or Istanbul for a change. We should let our states compete and build up their cities. Competition wakes us up. If we have 3 Singapores, city based economies, it is progress. Singapore has no natural resources; it is a power because of the commerce and talent it draws.

We do not need just one Shanghai. We want our Pune, Mangalore, Jaipur and the likes to grow up and shed that non-metro feel. Take advantage of the fact that they are not as messed up as the metros are and realise that therein lies an opportunity. Become the new-age metros. That would do two things. We will have better up-and -coming cities and it will stop the migration to metros and stretch their infrastructure.

Shanghai is in another country, another time zone and another 2 decades ahead of us. Shanghai is a pipedream not worth chasing. 

When will Shantaram get made ?

I have been hearing about Shantaram: the movie for almost 2 years now. The question is -as so when is it going to be made.It has already been delayed due to the writers strike of late 2007-08 and pre production and scripting is taking way longer than initially expected.

Owing to the book’s immense popularity worldwide, the cinematic adaptation of the novel is a reasonably anticipated and a project with immense potential.

I have surfed the net and lots of stuff that pops up is too old and dates to 08’ and early 09’.According to imdb.com ,Shantaram is till under development ,although there has been no official announcement –from the studio Warner bros or producers about the tentative schedule or release date.

At helm as the director would be Mira Nair who last year made Amelia, the biopic on Amelia Earhart and the Suketu Mehta written story in NewYork,I love you- starring Natalie Portman and Irfan Khan.

The novel Shantaram-itself is so detailed and loaded with information that there would be a problem of plenty for the screenplay writers .What do they chose to include and what to avoid?

Lin’s escape from Australia, his flight to New Zealand, his arrival and antics in India, the plague, the jail torture, the 6 month maharashtrian village stay where he is named ‘Shantaram’, the elaborate philosophical conversations with don Abdul Khader Khan, his brief stint as a Bollywood extra, his chasing of Karla to Goa, Leopold cafe, the friends, Prabhaker, Madame Zhou, Sapna mystery, Afghanistan, the lechers of dingy bylanes, counterfeit money, ingenious passport makers, the Russians and loads more.

Maybe the best way would be to leave some of the thing to the book itself and invent new scenes for the screen.

The cast is going to guarantee an opening. Any Depp movie will, which also includes Mr.Bachchan who will play Abdul Khader Khan. For Depp, even though the next blip on the radar is Pirates of the Caribbean: fountain of youth, he has stated that he is committed to Shantaram. Brad Pitt‘s production company is associated with the project and Depp is the co –producer.

There are sites with threads that criticize Depp’s choice as the hunky escaped Australian convict, but I disagree. You have to keep faith, he will be really good.

I am curious to see them create the Bombay of 80’s.How they are going to return to slightly saner time in an increasingly maddening and crowded city.Mira Nair also has Irfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma and possibly Pankaj Kapoor into the project .There is a decent chance of a fairly large number of Indian cast members working in an a list Hollywood production.Vishal Bhardwaj is to score sound track and the shooting will take place in Mumbai ,Afghanistan and New Mexico .When? That remains the question.

Nair will be aware of its Oscar potential and so the timing of the release is important .Late 2011 seems ideal –exactly 3 years after a film based in Bombay swept the Academy awards.