Fantasizing the Mafia

I was seeing the promos of the film “Once upon a time in Mumbai”. It reminded me of the smuggling flicks that rose to the charts of popularity in the 1970s and the 1980s. In those days people use the fantasize Gold Smuggling as a lucrative proposition for an alternate profession. Glamorous, filled with thrill and you get opportunities to deliver lines like “ye jung tumne shuru kiya hai aur khatam main karoonga” (this war was started by you but will be ended by me. Strong punch-lines and stronger impacts on the minds of people who looked for inspiration with entertainment in the movies and also wanted to be a part of this lucrative bandwagon were the news every Friday. There were English flicks like Godfather and Mafia to add more fuel to the fire and also lure the elites to have a consideration about smuggling as a profession.

Honestly speaking even I was not away from it. Although, I started watching these movies in the late nineties, when they had already overshot their prime times but I developed a kind of fantasy towards the life of a smuggler. I always used to believe that these people in flashy suites have their way in life, for them spending money was like throwing water in the toilet or even trivial than that. They never used to talk less than millions and would always have their ways even with the law and the system. It was so surprising to see a so called anti-social element being also revered by the society at large and feared by the system which was in place. Smuggling heroes like Rana (marte dam tak), Vijay (Dewaar) and Dharmatma (Dharmatma) were the inspirations of various young minds that were watching these movies.


I also used to imagine myself growing up to be a smuggler of Gold, who dons all sorts of attires (designer ones) and then leads a luxurious life. He only has his dinners in five stars and has more female admirers than one can ever imagine. He only uses the telephone to make deals worth billions of bucks and doesn’t worry to spend millions on his security. He always carries a gun, which is always loaded with lots of bullets. He has rivalry with a gang that is always trying to catch up with him but is never able to be as gritty as he is. He always wins in a gun-battle and is never defeated unless he is in love with this girl who tries to bring about a conscious change in him to turn him towards the path of honesty (how I hate such girls!!!!!!).


Such movies are really not made these days. These days we have stupid love stories and some really off the hook subjects with some sleazy doses of steamy scenes. We no more have dialogues that are spoken over the roof-top like “Bhagwaan ko yaad karle zaalim singh” (recall your God Zalim Singh) or dialogues like “Kam se kam apne honewale bachche ke liye to yeh rasta chhod do” (leave this path of crime at least for the sake of your kid to be born). We only have some hard hitting lines that hardly make any impact. I am really looking forward towards watching this movie.