The first time I heard the word extremist, a cinematic supervillain was about to launch bomb attacks across the country. The goggle-eyed Mogambo promised terror of such magnitude that people leaving their houses in the morning would wonder if they would return. These guys are like extremists, an adult watching Mr India (1987) with us said, sadly.
Today, it’s amusing to think about the word being used in such a context, given how grounded our current filmic depictions of terrorism or fundamentalism are. This is not to belittle Mr India, a personal favourite, but to point out that Mogambo is from a tradition of gloriously exaggerated antagonists (Javed Akhtar, who co-scripted the film, cited the influence of the Urdu pulp writer Ibn-e Safi). He wasn’t rooted in the real politics of the time.
Even in the mid-’80s, planes were being hijacked, and blown up, and events centred around Khalistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were on our radarbut terrorism, as we use the word today, had not entered common parlance in movies. Still, the feelgood Mr India had a scene that feels close to terrorism as we now know it: when little Tina is killed by a bomb in a stuffed toy.
Cut to two decades later, and another little girl in a very different film says, Tiger uncle ko bahut gussa aata tha, to a cop, relating how her neighbour once flew into a rage and slapped a child.
Tiger uncle is the underworld don Tiger Memon, the film is Black Friday (2007) about the 1993 Bombay blastsand the scene mentioned suggests an anger that might raze the entire world.
The gap between the fable-like film and the other about a specific event, is filled by 1990s’ works such as Gulzar’s Maachis (1996), Govind Nihalani’s Drohkaal (1994), Mani Ratnam’s Roja (1992) and Dil Se (1998).
Since then, the shadow of real-world events has been felt on even mainstream cinema: we have had films about violence in Kashmir, the Northeast and Punjab; about attacks on India from outside and within. The modes of expression vary, too: the recently released
India’s Most Wanted, starring Arjun Kapoor, was promoted as a grounded examination of the spadework that goes into catching terrorists, rather than a litany of action scenes.
There tend to be two story types. In one, the terrorists are shadowy representatives of evil. In Neerja (2016), based on the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am 73, our perspective is that of the titular heroine and the terrified passengers, so there is little reason for the film to present the hijackers’ story.
In Aamir (2008), about a conscientious Muslim doctor forced to follow a terror group’s directives, we don’t need detailed information about the blackmailer on the phone: what matters is the protagonist’s inner conflict. The second narrative shows the journey of an innocent who becomes a terrorist through circumstances or conditioning. It includes films like Fiza (2000),
A Wednesday (2008) and last year’s Mulk, where there’s not much of a backstory, but we see that the protagonist is vulnerable and easily manipulated. Such works can be more introspective about the thin line separating good and evil. Some even show both the larger picture (entire communities being devastated by an act of madness) and the worm’s-eye one (individuals grappling with their feelings), and even how one person’s terrorist may be another’s freedom fighter.
But notwithstanding the complexity of the more recent films, childhood memories travel a long way. Even now, walking past a dusty car parked in an unusual spot, if I think of bombs, it is Mogambo’s booming threat I remember rather than a gritty scene in a realistic film.
WATCHLIST
SARFAROSH
(1999)
Terrorists don’t often use the cover of ghazal singers, but Gulfam Hassan (Naseeruddin Shah) was both, a showman and a proxy for Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.
NEW YORK (2009)
Though Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is found with guns, the FBI is really after his friend Sameer Shaikh (John Abraham). Terror breeds terror in this post-9/ 11 film.
INDIA’S MOST
WANTED (2019)
Released on May 24, the film saw Prabhat Kapoor (Arjun Kapoor) hunt down “India’s Osama” with his band of mavericks. The catch-they didn’t have to fire many bullets.
read the full story about Cinema acts of terror
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