Where is our ‘Flying Jatt’?

Where is our ‘Flying Jatt’?

“A Flying Jatt” is a lesser known movie released in 2016 where the concept of ‘Desi’ super hero was highlighted. This was enough to draw attention of the leading newspaper, off course in a negative sense with the ‘lauki’ scene being highly exaggerated. We Indian would love watching the ‘Videshi’ super heroes and their stunt with an unquestionably high degree of focus and attention but, the stunts of an innocent ‘Desi’ superhero would definitely be out of the exterior boundary of our acceptability especially if the superhero is a mamma’s boy.

Well, my focus is not on the ‘Desi’ vs ‘Videshi’ concept but a concern deeper. Staying in the capital city of Delhi, working in a prime and centrally located office for the last 10 years, I had never experienced such hazardous effects of pollution. The sky turned ugly with a prominence of black colour spread across, not only during the night but even during day. The stars preferred to go unnoticed and so did the timid moon. The air with 90% smoke filled not only the environment but also our lungs. The fog which usually marked the arrival of shivery winter mornings, has now been replaced by ‘smog’ and the winters have ceased to be cold any more.

Our bodies were retaliating in the most submissive manner knowing pretty well that, this time none would be spared from the poison created by our own selves. Some complained about the Government, rest society, some joined the ashrams in search of salvation and some high level intellectuals used the terminologies like ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’; but majority were happy to put the blame on others and breathe a guilt free air. Back of the mind, I think everyone was aware of the fact that when it’s a mass destruction-there is none to complain. The unhealthy environment made us think for a moment or so about the next and the next to next generations- but most of us were satisfied thinking that our life expectancy would not last beyond three generations; and hence the evil effects would not penetrate to us. The selfishness of human-beings thus remains exposed with no hypocrisy to cover it up.

The November of 2017 did create a lot of news in Delhi. The almost declaration of the ‘khichri’ as the national food was bagging all the laurels and public attention when another bumper news came – ‘The worst levels of pollution hit the capital state Delhi’. The later news won the first prize in the popularity award and caught immediate public attention as the sufferers were none other than public. The news created history as for the first time kids got a ‘pollution vacation’. We tried to act indifferently, and focused on the work which according to us was of the top priority but the burning eyes and a sore throat constantly reminded us of the hell we are staying in. But again, whom to complain?

The dark morning sky reminded me of the above mentioned movie villain-Raka who was powered by pollution, so the more we pollute, the stronger he gets. Raka had a dialogue in the movie at one point: “I have a black soul, rooh meri kali hai.” Suddenly, a visualization of a dark beast with black body and black soul danced before my eyes. The thoughts of a roaring and howling Raka filled my thoughts completely. I started to relate to every scene of the movie.

The movie had been labelled as an eco-fable; but, the instances were so similar to the actual fate of this mother earth. Everyone in this planet is acting voluntarily or involuntarily in favour of Raka, making him supreme but none initiates a single step towards retaliating. Raka who had been a personification of ‘Pollution’ is constantly devouring mother Earth and a time would definitely come when any efforts towards destroying Raka would go in vain.

With the advancement of the IT technology, it has become much easier to find any information. The Google God gave several reasons for the severe pollution in the city. The emissions from the factory, the emissions from the vehicle, the residential fuel burning, bursting of crackers (though the level was much less due to the ban in selling of crackers by the Supreme Court), the burning of straw in the fields in Punjab and Haryana and the pre-monsoon dust storm, all pull up the pollution in Delhi or in other words add to the power of Raka in Delhi. The information updated me and many others with the general awareness and made me ready for any tea-time group discussions during the next few days with the obvious theme ‘pollution in Delhi’. But solutions were still none.

In the movie, we had only one bad man- the businessman who was ruining the environment with his anti-environmental, business friendly ideas but in our real world each individual owns a share of the guilt for spoiling the Mother Nature. The movie businessman realized his mistake when his own created devil was about to consume him and his family; but why are we not realizing our mistake?

What bothers me more is that the male protagonist in the film had been blessed by the Almighty God to protect the mother Earth, but in reality, I am unable to find a saviour for this Earth. If a one-to-one comparison is made between the movie and reality, it can be seen that, today Delhi is suffering because of Raka’s beastly activities. Slowly with the constant nurture of Raka, he will be in a position to devour the entire state, entire nation and subsequently the entire planet, much similar to the movie climax. Are we actuality waiting to watch the climax? The film had another dialogue which shook me hard- “Tum logo ne to space ko bhi nahi chhoda, You people have not left the space as well, which indicates that the depletion effects has not only been confined to this earth but also to the space beyond. So, we have in fact no inch of space left on this galaxy which is pollution free, leave aside planet.

Are we actually trusting the film and hoping that God would definitely find a path? Or have we completed rejected the theme of the film, same way we have out rightly rejected the movie as a whole justifying that there is no substance to it. I feel I am an atheist in this context because I really fear what has been shown in the movie about the massiveness of Raka, but, I doubt on the role played by God. My mind is constantly pestering me with question-‘ Will God be kind enough to be our saviour when the  Scientist say that with the current rate of pollution the end of this world is not too far.’ A positive end is what is expected and likened by all, but is there a positive end to this real life crisis?

The film ends with a quote: “Everything has an alternative. Except Mother Earth” and I do not find any better tag line to send the message to the readers.

Again ‘No solution! Just a tag line!!!’That’s what we, including me are silly enough to do.