“You think you know who you are…You have no idea”.

When Matt Dillon says this, it doesn’t hit you as the central theme of the movie. But during the most poignant scene during the movie, when the supposedly neutral police officer covers up the murder of an innocent black man he just shot, it all comes to you like a blinding flash. This is what the makers of the movie “Crash” are trying to say.
Crash is scary. Because it’s very much possible. It not only paints a grim view of the darkest and softest underbelly of the world’s most powerful nation struggling to live up to the U in the USA, but also goes a step further. It paints it darker than it actually is.
Some might say it’s an exaggeration. But to me it will not be as much a movie on America as much as it would be a statement on what can be easily reality.
Crash is a movie that will come as an eye opener not only to people all round the world, but most importantly to thousands of Americans themselves who grow up in peaceful, prosperous, suburbs or quiet mid-west right wing conservative towns in America. To some, it may even come as a shock.
While the movie talks about the simmering differences on the boil in America, what’s scary about the movie is its application to any pluralistic society in the world. Pluralism is a term that has not been treated well so far. Is man innately pluralistic? Isn’t community formation the most natural form of living? Are we creating artificial pockets of urban melting pots and materialistic islands of pluralism that goes against the very grain of our ways of existence? Isn’t the need for identity stronger than anything else? What is it that made all Americans and the Brits look at brown as the new color of terror? Can you blame them for it?

But as an Indian, it makes you wonder what makes us tick. Maybe it’s our culture of tolerance. Maybe it’s our political incorrectness. Stereotypes are a celebrated part of our culture. How can a Sardar ever be portrayed as intelligent or a Tamilian fluent in Hindi? But what clearly comes through is that for a pluralistic society to survive everybody has to understand that deep down there’s a little bit of racism/casteism/regionalism in all us. Once an unofficial limit has been sanctioned by society, people can vent their normal levels of xenophobia in unobtrusive and non-violent ways instead of keeping it within for a long time that’s very dangerous.
America is a perfect case in point where its biggest failure has not been failure to curb intolerance. It has been the failure to identify a little xenophobia and stereotypes as human and allow for a certain measure of intolerance. Something must be right in the system that gives a Sikh Prime Minister, a Muslim President and a Catholic head of the ruling party. Compared to the White House, which hasn’t seen a non-white or a woman yet.

In India, nobody bothers to stop calling people from the Northeast “Chinkies” or South Indians “Illad”. And nobody bats an eyelid before making a joke on a Sardar all round the country. Or is banned from putting up to-let boards saying “Open only to Hindu Brahmins”. I’ve stayed in hostels where nicknames have ranged from “Bangali BC” to “Bihari Ch….”. to “Mallu MC”

Because in India “sab kuch chalta hai”. Political incorrectness and stereotyping is tolerated, and even acceptable to an extent. It’s ok to be asked your caste right after being introduced. It’s ok for my grandma to ask the maid not to come into to the tam bram kitchen. You’re not going to be put into jail for being racist because of this. You are not going to be slapped a lawsuit at the drop of a hat. Salman Khan will not be charged with a hate crime just because he ran down a Hindu. (its another matter that he may not be charged at all, but that’s another blog, ain’t it). And when someone in Delhi asks me in earnest puzzlement “Saauth mein to saare log kaale hote hain na .Yeh Rekha, Hema Malini or Aishwarya Rai itne gore kaise hain?”, I can’t help but smile. I know we still have a long way to go.
But I am not going to file a lawsuit. At least, not just yet.:)