Zan, zar, zameen – meaning women, wealth, and land – have been considered the root cause of all strife. Men are willing to lay down their lives protecting them. Of the three, however, more wars are fought over zameen, used variously to refer to land, country, earth, or ground.
And, it is no different in the movie I saw today – Jolly LLB 3 – in Prasads Multiplex. I expected the movie to be merely “jolly”, as I remember the first two in the series were. Although at times it is funny, it is more of a serious drama, nay, a battle over agricultural land, a battle that is fought both within the court room and outside of it. There are a lot of other elements in it apart from this central theme, which are quite tightly interwoven into the plot. It makes for interesting viewing, one which will leave you with much to think about long after watching it.
The final questions it left me with are this:
Is injustice going to be a part of our societies forever, with sometimes we ourselves contributing to it in some way or the other?
What contributes to our nature that it becomes ready to commit an injustice when something stands in the way of the fulfillment of our desires and dreams, right from our individual day-to-day personal lives to the higher stakes professional working lives – from the way we treat others (with disdain and in unkind and uncharitable ways) to the way we exploit others as means to our ends?
Is the only way to step outside these battle zones is to shun zan, zar, zameen?
Know Thyself 