“Dhoom Machale…” The exuberant, celebratory track from the 2004 blockbuster “Dhoom” rounded off Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech, more evidence that New York’s newly elected mayor embraces his many identities with a light-as-souffle touch.
The 34-year-old Indian-descent democrat, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, defeated independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday night.
As Mamdani concluded his speech before hundreds of supporters with “New York, this power it’s yours. This city belongs to you. Thank you”, the title track of the Abhishek Bachchan-John Abraham starrer started playing in the background.
He was joined on stage by wife Rama Duwaji and his parents as the speech ended, the pulsating tune playing all the while in the background. Mamdani is the first South Asian, the first Muslim and the youngest to helm the administration of the world’s financial capital.
This is not the first time that Mamdani, who was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was seven, has used the popular appeal of Hindi cinema.
Several of his campaign videos, to reach out to New York’s Indian American voters, used songs and dialogues from hit Hindi movies to great effect. One video, for instance, referenced “Deewaar”, “Karz” and “Om Shanti Om”, all cult hits from the recent and not so recent past
Hours after his historic win, Mamdani delivered a thundering speech in front of his supporters, saying his victory toppled a political dynasty and also quoted the words of former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru – a moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance. Tonight, we have stepped out from the old into the new,” he added.
Mamdani wasted no time calling out President Donald Trump. “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up!” Mamdani, a Democrat, said during a Tuesday night speech to a raucous crowd of supporters shortly after being declared the victor.
Mamdani made countering the 79-year-old Republican president’s actions in the city — especially on immigration — a centerpiece of his campaign. The next three years will test his ability to go toe-to-toe with Trump, who wields the world’s biggest bully pulpit and thrives on bare-knuckle politics.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani told supporters. “And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump, it’s how we stop the next one.”
“So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us you will have to go through all of us,” Mamdani added.
