“Apna Time Ayega”
It’s been four days since the movie “Gully Boy” released and this anthem seems to have taken over the entire country.
Such is the power of storytelling in this movie about dreams and destiny that the music and dialogues resonate with you long after you leave the cinema hall.
However, this is not another movie review dissecting the nuances and applauding the flawless direction. This is a heartfelt letter of gratitude to Zoya Akhtar for creating Murad Ahmed and the entire gully gang. This is an acknowledgement for providing us with a sharp and brutal lens of classism which diminishes caste and religion to nothingness.
Murad Ahmed is a practising Muslim and he wears his religion on his sleeve. His Surma filled eyes are brimming with a hope of breaking free. Right before he performs in the final round, he offers Namaz and then heads to the arena. He is that stereotypical Muslim that you have seen in every Bollywood movie ever – his father is a polygamist and is abusive, his mother is helpless and he speaks in a typical slang. Yet, he touches a raw nerve as no Muslim protagonist has in any mainstream Bollywood movie.
What the audience connect with is his relentless commitment to break free. His struggle to find his place in this world which tells him every day that he’s destined to perish in anonymity. His journey of finding his voice while being surrounded by hardship reminds one of their own inner demons.
He measures a lavish washroom and realizes that his entire home is not even as big as a rich man’s bathing area. It is his mother’s biggest dream to see her son graduate and work in an office; it is also his biggest joy and privilege to be able to go to college and be a graduate. Yet, his hard-earned achievement is treated as a parameter of diminishing value of a degree by a privileged man who has never had to think twice before paying the tuition fee for his children.
Moin is Murad’s childhood friend. He’s a drug-peddler, car thief and obviously, a mechanic. His professional credentials are exactly what you associate with a Muslim from a slum. Yet, when he aggressively tells Murad that children are better off with him as labourers than they were in a pit dying, you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut.
His sense of right and wrong is blurry as he has never had the chance to rise above the hustle for survival. During the scene where he requests Murad to take care of his children, we are all a drug peddler or a car thief.
In that moment, we are all Moins.
MC Sher is introduced as the first beam of hope. His confidence and swag inspire Murad to follow his dreams.
Yet, you are only introduced to Shrikant when you enter his dingy home in a chawl. His alcoholic father and the responsibility of young siblings are his reality far flung from his persona of Sher.
During that moment, Murad and Shrikant are one person.
During that moment, neither does Murad’s taweez matter nor does Shrikant’s Marathi slur.
Gully Boy takes us to the most poverty-stricken, dirty streets of India’s economic capital. It takes you to those slums not so far from your own home which remain ignored and even suspected. Gully Boy takes you inside your own conscience and leads you to check your own privilege.
You root for Murad and cheer for him before he holds the mic for his final performance, with sheer disbelief being reflected in his surma-lined eyes.
When Murad raps “Apna Time Ayega” as Gully Boy for the first time before an enthusiastic crowd, you feel his energy vibrating in your pulse. During that moment, we all are Safeena – nervous and proud.
When Murad stands on the stage and his parents are overwhelmed with emotions, you stand up and applaud because he has transcended the barriers of his own destiny.
Your feelings shift from absolute hate to heartbreaking pity for Murad’s father as he begs his son not to forego what he believes is the only shot he has for a slightly better future than himself.
You want to bail out Moin for his petty crimes. You want to hold the police back and let them know about why he did that.
You smile to yourself when Murad refuses an alcoholic drink. You are proud that he stuck to his values.
“Gully Boy” makes you forget about the caste or religious divides. “Gully Boy” makes you realize that what matters is survival and the privilege to dream.
During these horrific times, “Gully Boy” reminds India of what it stands for – one dream, one nation.