Black Friday
I have been re-reading S. Hussain Zaidi’s Black Friday, a fast-paced account of the 1993 Bombay blasts. Tomorrow, I’m interviewing Zaidi in connection with another story that I’m researching, and I have been wondering when we are going to get a chance to watch Anurag Kashyap’s film based on the book. I had last seen Anurag at the Bombay book-launch of Husband of a Fanatic: he had just returned from Europe where his film had been lauded at festivals, but the film’s release was blocked by the Supreme Court on legal grounds. The situation hasn’t changed. Anurag Kashyap is easily among the most talented new directors in India, a young man with omnivorous interests and an earthiness that translates into work that is direct and street-smart. I hope his film captures what Alex Perry had noted as an essential feature of Zaidi’s book:
The undeniable strength of Black Friday is the depth and intelligence with which Zaidi portrays the bombers themselves. In penetrating this closed world, Zaidi ridicules the shorthand caricature of terrorists so popular nowadays: that they are “evil,” “fanatic” or “mad.” Instead, we get to read about ordinary men who start out with earthly motivations and none-too-resolute convictions but who ultimately come to embrace terror. One such character is Badshah Khan, an underworld foot soldier recruited to the plot and swept up in righteous determination, dutiful loyalty and terrifying excitement. He scouts targets, assesses their vulnerability and helps plant the devices. But Khan is eventually abandoned by his cohorts, left penniless and finally captured. Such portraits reveal more about the roots of terrorism than a thousand theories about the clash of civilizations could. As the U.S. deploys its full military might against Iraq in the face of almost unanimous hostility from the Muslim world, Zaidi’s book stands as a timely reminder of how, in the hands of a few men, revenge can throw a nation into panic.
