Zohran Mamdani: the outsider insider, and now New York’s mayor

Chances are you have heard of Zohran Kwame Mamdani as the newly elected mayor of New York who played ‘Dhoom Machale’ at the end of his victory speech. Either that or you may have, like many of us, first stumbled upon him swinging from a New York lamppost, mouthing lines from Bollywood blockbusters Karz and Deewar . In the reel that went viral with over 40 million views, Mamdani flipped those iconic dialogues into the language of his campaign: power to tenants, dignity to workers, transit for all. He had reimagined Amitabh Bachchan’s defiance for Astoria’s working class.

In that brief reel, just as in the rest of his campaign, one could see everything that fuels him: the instinct for play, the hunger for story, the belief that narrative forges belonging. This, coupled with over 90,0