Renowned filmmaker Hansal Mehta, on Sunday, criticised the condition of Mumbai and questioned the indifference of the people living in the city. He also highlighted the poor governance, and said that he was "appalled by the filth, the chaos, the broken infrastructure" of Mumbai.
Mehta took to his X handle on Sunday and wrote, "Just returned from a long shoot in Colombo. A country grappling with economic crisis and fairly recent political turmoil, and yet its capital is cleaner, more organised, and more dignified than the so-called financial capital of a rising superpower."
He went on to say, "Every time I come back to Mumbai I am appalled — not just by the filth, the chaos, the broken infrastructure, but by our collective indifference to it. We excuse it all with “but we have such a large population.” True. But we also have a population that has been taught to expect very little, demand nothing, and normalise the unacceptable."
"We live in a city where real estate costs a soul and a lifetime. For what? A view of garbage-littered streets, open drains, and civic apathy dressed up in designer branding. A city consumed by consumerism, yet hollowed out from the inside. How long will we continue to live like this? Apathetic, exhausted, and resigned — mistaking endurance for pride, and chaos for character," he continued.
Mehta concluded saying, "I still believe I love this city. It has given me everything. But it’s strangled by those in power — people who never let it breathe, who won’t allow it to care for us. They profit from its decay and dress it up as resilience."
Most of the netizens were seen agreeing to Mehta's stance, and they supported him as well. On the other hand, some complained that it was foolish to compare Mumbai to Sri Lanka, which has a very small population in comparison.
This is not the first time that the filmmaker has expressed his disappointment over the state of the city. In the past too, he has time and again spoken about how Mumbai was heading towards a downfall with excessive load on the resources of the city.
