This week we saw the release of yet another intense Amazon Prime Video original web series “Mumbai Diaries 26/11”. The series with 8 episodes shows a fresh side of the deadly, gruesome attacks on different areas in Mumbai in 2008. “Mumbai Diaries 26/11,” tells viewers the side of the night that earlier was not explored. It tells the stories of frontline workers, the doctors, and medical staff specifically, along with the police and media. The series was all about how the doctors managed to do their jobs on that gruelling night and come out victorious. “Mumbai Diaries 26/11” definitely has left an impact on the viewers and given everyone a different perspective of how the night was for different people.
Now, the story of “Mumbai Diaries 26/11”, might be inspired by real events but is a completely fictionalised story. The series focuses on Bombay General Hospital, and the doctors, trainees, and medical staff inside it. This is definitely the first show that focused entirely on the medical staff but not the only show that has described and shown the gruesome attacks of 26/11. Since 2008, there have been ample amounts of movies, series, and documentaries released about the deadly night. It has to be one of the most cinematised attacks in India. The night was deadly and every Mumbaikar that has been present in Mumbai that day, remembers that day vividly and how dark it must have been for them.
The scene here is filmmakers will probably never stop making content on these attacks, but the point is how long will they keep opening up a wound that is nowhere near healed. Now, we understand that the story of so many people in Mumbai needs to be told, all those who lost their lives protecting their city need to be told, all those who survived those attacks, their stories need to be told. All these need to be told so that people will remember how bad that awful 26/11 night was.
We have had movies, series, documentaries from the point of view of the terrorists that attacked, of the police that went ahead and protected the cities, of the hotel staff, of the NSG commandos, of the survivors, and those who lost someone in the attack. But the point is how many more of these will be made? How long will the wound that still is so fresh to so many people be scratched? This isn’t the first time an attack has been cinematised so much. The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in the U.S. is another such example.
But then again, all these questions pop up when we question how many more of these emotionally draining shows and movies are. How will the generations know what happened on that dreadful night in Mumbai on 26/11? How did the “Sapno ka seher” jump back to what it is today? How so many people did give their lives to protect Mumbai, as the world knows it today? The only way is to create more such shows and movies that give perspectives of various people of Mumbai on that night of 26/11.
The attacks on Mumbai on the 26th of November, are something that most people want to forget as if it was a bad dream. But then, it is way too big to be just a bad dream, it is much more. The Mumbai Attacks 26/11, taught Indians, what it is capable of and what it isn’t capable of, and to keep that in mind, these shows, movies, and documentaries continuously keep on doing a phenomenal job. So, for now, we don’t know how much more of such content will be there, but we know one thing even if it is painful, we absolutely need this to keep us awake.
But as of now, you can drop everything and watch the brilliantly created Mumbai Diaries 26/11, streaming on Amazon Prime Video.