Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 24, 2016)


It was in October 2008 when writer-filmmaker Saurabh Varma learnt about the widely-reported police encounter of a 25-year-old Patna man who had held a Mumbai-bound bus hostage in Kurla. The incident kicked up a storm after Mumbai police alleged that the youngster intended to assassinate a prominent Mumbai politico, sparking criticism across the country.

And while that's where Saurabh, who admits to being shaken by the incident, got the idea for his upcoming investigative thriller, 7 Hours To Go, he is quick to point out that the film is an amalgamation of several other real events, bound by fictional characters. "My film has no political representation but the hostage crisis is the same. Someone who is new to Mumbai enters the city and holds it at ransom.  While that was a bus, my film is set in a courtroom in the High Court," the filmmaker points out, adding that the film could be described as an Ittefaq-meets-Neerja and also draws extensively from a case that can be likened with a "mouse trapped inside a cage and making demands to the cats outside".

The case Saurabh is referring to was another widely-reported incident from November 2015 when the employees of a food ordering start-up took the co-founders of the firm, Gaurav Choudhary and Harshvardhan Mandad, hostage for two days after they were handed the pink slip through a mass e-mail. After police and politicians intervened to diffuse the crisis, over 20 employees received two months' salary and references for future jobs.

"These pressure tactics don't make sense but symbolise the helplessness of the hostages and the man taking them hostage. It's oxymoronic! At times the mouse is actually the cat and that makes the pacy cat-and-mouse chase so much more fun." Saurabh signs off with a smile.