Rahul Desai
The 2005 Mumbai floods are repositioned as a 2009 event, but the idea of a franchise remains rooted in the structural continuity of a socio-political tragedy.
The cultural identity of Mumbai is often reduced to numbers: 26/11 in the first season, 26/7 in the second. But the times – these dates and their iconic incidents – are only the trigger. The bullet is timeless.
This tissue between image and imagery is subtext as well as text. A news anchor who rose to prominence by villainizing the hospital gets disillusioned when her editor orders her to focus on “stories of hope” during the deluge.
They emerge from their inability to stick to their job profile – when their empathy can’t be contained any longer.
It thrives on this private bridge between impression and expression. After all, cities like Mumbai are defined by flesh and blood. And diaries are defined by letters and confessions.