Over a decade after the release of comedy-drama Waqt, what has struck me is not the film’s lessons or Shefali Shah’s brilliant act, memorable as they were. No, it’s the realization that 2020 evokes in me the same feeling that I experienced every time Laxman, (an amazing performance by Rajpal Yadav) appeared on-screen.
Yes. Laxman from Waqt is the personification of the miserable, annoying, never-ending, shit fest that 2020 has been. No offense to you Laxman, but really, why?
If you think about it, there was nothing ‘wrong’ with Laxman. At the face of it, he was a dedicated worker, who diligently asked for instructions, and followed them to the T.
Just like 2020 first appeared to be the perfect year, with multiple long weekends, an extra day in February, and the Olympics.
But, if you remember clearly, things were never just so simple with Laxman. And 2020 has definitely not turned out to be anything like our expectations either.
Explaining anything to Laxman, even a basic message, was as difficult as it is convincing people to wear a mask and maintain social distancing.
I mean, it seems to be a pretty straightforward message, that any reasonable person should understand. And yet, Laxman failed to grasp the importance of the message every single time. Just as people failed to maintain social distancing, despite repeated warnings.
Also, exactly like Laxman took every rhetorical question as an actual statement or challenge, 2020 seems to have taken our exclamation of, “what else can go wrong?” quite literally.
It’s only been half-a-year, and yet, we are already at our wits’ end, dreading what else could go wrong.
But just as you could not be prepared for the questions that Laxman would spring on you, it does not look like we can accurately predict what the remaining year would bring with itself.
Guess all we can do is safeguard ourselves, and prepare for Laxman’s never-ending questions, i.e. the remaining of 2020.