Bollywood takes on terrorism

Remember a time when Bollywood films were all made according to one of two stories? Either it was a romantic saga - hero and heroine fall in love, then face obstacles from family but finally win over everyone's heart - or a vendetta tale - a lone hero fights a battle to seek revenge on an uncouth, unjust villain.

Decade after decade, the same two stories were told in different ways and the audience continued to applaud them. But with globalisation, the equations in films started to change. Audiences were bored of watching the same old plots. They wanted something new - something closer to reality.

New filmmakers started looking for topics that reflected real life. One topic that took dominance over all else was the sudden spurt of terror activities across the globe.

As practically every major city in the world either experienced gruesome terror attacks or faced its threats, terrorism became a focal point of common public's day-to-day discussions.

Terrorism was no longer the occasional news item from distant shores that was soon forgotten; it almost became part of our daily existence.

Bollywood filmmakers saw an opportunity in recreating these events. They began working on the theme of terrorism as some kind of a new age mantra.

A villain in a new costume

The 'terrorist' was not like the usual run-of-the-mill Bollywood villain. He was not just some gun-toting, bad-mouthing, fierce- looking evil guy. On the exterior, he could look perfectly normal, a man-next-door hiding his evil interior. He was someone who would not think twice before killing innocent people.

And yet this bad guy's dark thought process would be initiated by some real or perceived injustice against him, his family, his state, his country or his community. The political and religious undertones in these terrorist portrayals made them complex characters with grey shades.

Lead actors in the film fraternity snatched up the opportunity to portray the complex mind of a terrorist. Hrithik Roshan in Fiza and Mission Kashmir; Chandrachur Singh in Maachis; Manisha Koirala in Dil Se; Aamir Khan in Fanaa; Anurag Sinha in Black And White; and Naseeruddin Shah in A Wednesday played some of the memorable terrorist characters in Hindi cinema.

These terrorists not only had a method to their madness; they also claimed they had meaning in their mean machinations!

Reel mirrors real life

Real-life terrorist incidents kept providing filmmakers with storylines for their movies. Manisha Koirala in Dil Se and Tulip Joshi in Dhokha played the roles of suicide bombers, much akin to 'human bombs' used in many notorious terror attacks on famous political leaders. In Maachis, Gulzar depicted the terrorism in Punjab of the 1980s. Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday graphically portrayed the 1993 serial bomb-blasts in Mumbai.

Mani Ratnam's Roja, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Mission Kashmir and Kunal Kohli's Fanaa used the politically charged Kashmir-issue as their main plot. Naseeruddin Shah's debut directorial venture Yuun Hota To Aisa Hota was not a typical terrorism-related movie but it used the 9/11 New York Twin Tower bombings as its climax.Nishikant Kamat's Mumbai Meri Jaan used the backdrop of 7/11 Mumbai local train blasts as its backdrop.

Mission Istanbul - an atrociously over-the-top movie - had an interesting premise of a powerful TV station trying to twist facts to keep terrorism alive.

Meanwhile, Films like Anwar and Little Terrorist tried to bring into focus the mass hysteria about terrorism, which can sometimes turn an innocuous incident into a sensational one. Sometimes these films almost foretold the grim terrorist events. The terrorist plot planned in Mukhbiir was dangerously similar to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, even though the film was released much earlier.

Potential to do good

Terrorism is an issue which has baffled one and all with its growing stature and complexity.

The conventional "War on Terror" has no way of succeeding against it. Thankfully recent Hindi films like Mumbai Meri Jaan and Aamir have tellingly put one important point across: they effectively show that it is the common man who is lured or coerced into becoming a terrorist and it is also the common man who suffers the most as the result of terror attacks.

So, finally, it is up to the common man to recognise the dangers of either living in constant fear of terrorism or falling into the trap of becoming an instrument of terror.

Standing up united against terrorism, denouncing fanaticism and respecting multi-culturalism is the only winning option in this war on terror.

As Paresh Raval says in his role as a policeman in Mumbai Meri Jaan: "Instead of returning every push with a shove, why don't we realise that someone, somewhere has to stop this unending mad cycle of vengeance?"

Let's hope that in the future, Bollywood can come up with even more effective and expressive movies on terrorism. It is indeed the need of the hour.

In an attempt to make realistic cinema, Hindi filmmakers are trying to recreate the madness that is terrorism.