One Night in Miami…
One Night in Miami was a movie recommended by some critics I follow on YouTube.
I am curious about Black people, their history and art. Last year, I invested a lot of time to understand about Vietnam War. That was fruitful in understanding Spike Lee’s 5 Da Blood movie and the scars left by the war in the human mind and its aftermath.
This year, I want to know their struggles, Malcolm X, MLK and much more nuances of that history. I believe I can draw parallels to the oppressed of my country to the Blacks. Dalits face the same problem as the Black has faced in the U.S and they still face too. But in the U.S, the Black have a strong voice and there is a good pushback from the popular Black people. I don’t live in the U.S so I don’t know how fairly they are represented in many institutions. From my point of view, by following a few progressive people, critics, artists, I understand their problem. I understand what it is to be a minority and how lack of privilege works. Unfortunately in India, we are a Brahmin or upper-caste dominated country. Be it media, business, art, it is quite rare to find a Dalit’s voice prominent. Yes, there are fringe voices like Pa. Ranjith or Nagaraj Manjule or Mari Selvaraj. but again they are a minority. There may be a lot more but at least in my media diet, I don’t have much diversity or the voices of Indian Dalits or oppressed people.
I liked One Night in Miami because it is my kind of movie. A movie that entertains and illuminates. I didn’t know the struggles of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. But I got to know about so much of history, challenges just by watching an event unfold in a single night of discussion. I want to know more about Malcolm X and Black Panthers and so on because of this movie. It is so masterfully made and very well written script. The first part of the movie in which James Wilson encounters a white person was so great and it makes you feel racism viscerally. I love that experience when a movie does that to you. I am really looking forward to tasting and experience the works of these masters in the upcoming days.