BUBBLEHEAD: GODZILLA
he bubblehead series is aimed at
T
trying to find a story within all things
mainstream. So in my first endeavor, I
thought I’d go for the cult classic
Godzilla and branch out to other ideas.
So, here it goes. I’d recently
watched Godzilla,
the
Japanese
version released in 1954. The movie
was different, like nothing I’d ever seen
before. It was raw. It wasn’t some
kaiju (monster) movie where a
monster comes and destroys a city
before it goes in a long slumber.
There were scenes of just people crying
or buildings burning down, scenes that
would never see the light of the
day because of how uncomfortable it
would make the audience feel. I
wasn’t desensitized by the violence.
Instead, I was concerned, worried
almost for the fictitious people in the
city. I did some research, and realized
that the movie wasn’t a commercial
production; it
was
a
political
statement. It was an allegory to the
nuclear attack and subsequent terror
that was instilled in the people of Japan
of another imminent attack.
23
Fast forward to 1984, post Indira
Gandhi’s
assassination.
Anti-Sikh
propaganda was on the rise. The
community was ostracized, people were
lynched and their women raped simply
because, in the most basic sense, wore
turbans.
Rajiv
Gandhi’s
official
statement was "We must remember
Indiraji. We must remember why her
assassination happened. We must
remember who could be the people
behind this".
When Indira's assassination happened,
there were riots in the country. We
know that the hearts of the Indian
people were full of anger and that for a
few days people felt India was shaking.
When a big tree falls, the earth shakes".
He explained 2800 people being killed
as a natural response, much like
sneezing when someone asks you to
sniff a little bit of pepper. The man was
awarded a Bharat Ratna (posthumously).
Fast forward to the present, and
it’s happening again, this time to a
different community (Hint: 2000+2).