THE MOOR’S LAST SIGH - SALMAN RUSHDIE

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TALE

CAST

1. Aurora De Gama- Mother India (Or the Congress)
2. Moor- Bombay (the early moor), Mumbai (the later moor)
3. Abraham - The Govt. of India
4. Raman Fielding- Bal Thakray
5. Mumbai Axis- Shiv Sena
6. Uma Saraswati- The multi- faceted problems facing and killing Moor (Bombay)
7. Scarface - Haji Mastan ( Bombay Underworld's first don)
8. Nadia Wadia- Maureen Wadia (the Beauty Queen)

STORY

This is the story of the love- hate relationship between Mother India (Aurora) and the city of Bombay (Moor). Mother India, which paints Bombay in different hues and colours; as a little child in its mother's arms or as a king in his castle or as a murderous man when abandoned by its mother (India). The early refrence to the Nargis- starrer Mother India is a clever hint that the Mother doesn't always protect and care for its child. When the child turns bad, the mother shoots it dead to rid it of its evil. The protagonist, Moor is born in a cosmopolitan city (the Bombay of yore) and country - where Cochin is more British than India, where Catholics marry Jews, where wives embrace their husbands' masculine lovers with open arms and become best friends with them; in a house where art is respected more than the artists' religion or place of birth, where anyone and everyone is welcome as long as they are good at what they do, and where Hindus guard the house (Lambajan) and manage its day- to- day affairs (Jaya He). In such a house is born our Moor, but he is not the usual child, at 6 ft. 5 inches he is as huge and towering over all other people as Bombay is richer than and supreme to all other cities. Because of his size and its prosperity, both Moor and Bombay are unliked, envied, giggled at and treated as outcasts by society. In the early Moor paintings, Moor is loved and cared for by Aurora as Bombay was by India in its early history. He has a damaged and powerful right hand, the Hindu right wing of Maharashtra, which is kept hidden in his clothes, but only till the Paradise of Bombay exists. Abraham, Aurora's husband and partner in crime is India's government, the one who does its dirty business.

The twist in the tale is the entry of Uma, the schizophrenic lover who attracts, bewitches and ultimately destroys our Moor. This character is the metaphor for the hydra- headed monster of corruption, politics, the Underworld, slums and all the ills plaguing the city. Aurora tries to prevent the Moor from falling into Uma's trap, but to no avail. India tried to cleanse Bombay of its evils, but failed, gave up and ultimately turned its scorn on the city. This is what led to the total destruction of the city, the abandonment by it own mother. That is why the late moor paintings depict the fall of the empire, the betrayal of Boabdil by mother Ayxa, the breaking of the black and white diamonds while the Mother watches in the mirror. The city and the Moor, both abandoned by their mothers fall under the aegis of the Dark side, the Evil right hand comes out of the pocket and in revenge for its loss, punches and kills everything in sight.
Darkness pervades where once there was light. Hindu fanatics (the Shiv Sena) take over the once secular, democratic city. The final blow comes when Aurora dies dancing her own dance of death (the dance of Shiva, the destroyer) atop her Kailash Parbat (Malabar Hill). This is synonymous to the fall of the Congress (in the late 1980's). Now the whole country is taken over by the right wing Hindu fundamentalists, the BJP.