THE TERRORIST

THE TERRORIST, an excellent new movie from India, explores the psychology behind a suicide bomber working for a terrorist organization. It is a very unique movie, because the terrorist is not some male fanatic, but a beautiful 19-year-old (almost childlike) woman whose brother was a martyr and whose father was a nationalist poet. It is also unique because the focus is not so much on the violence of terrorism but on the psychology of terrorism.

Ayesha Dharkar plays Malli, a competent soldier for the cause who has been trained to act without thinking. The leaders of her cause (which remains somewhat murky and anonymous) decide that they need a young woman who can get close enough to a VIP and blow him and herself to pieces. Malli must travel several days from the jungle to the city, where she must wait several days more for the VIP to arrive on a goodwill visit.

Before arriving in the city, Malli (whose name means “jasmine”) encounters a young orphaned boy who helps her travel through dangerous hidden mines. They skirt past some soldiers but encounter another soldier whom Malli must hack to death with a machete (viewers only see Malli swing the blade in the background after sneaking up on the man). They hide the body, and Malli gets on the ferry that will take her to the city. She watches in horror as she sees soldiers approach the young boy. The camera focuses on her face as gunshots are heard.

This incident brings to Malli’s memory an encounter she had with a dying young man whose camp was raided by the soldiers. Malli and the man hide in the brush from the soldiers. The young man caresses her face, remarking how beautiful she is, especially with the raindrops glistening on her skin and long black hair. Malli eventually leans her head softly against his. The next morning, she goes to make sure no soldier remains, only to return to see some soldiers kill the young man. Again, the camera focuses on Malli’s face, not on the brutality she sees.

Finally arriving in the city, Malli hides out in the room of the absent son of an elderly farmer. Her handler poses as her cousin and tells the farmer that she is an agricultural student. He calls the farmer “Mad” Vasu. Vasu turns out to be a talkative, friendly sort of man, full of homespun philosophies. One of the stories he tells is about an optimistic seed which turned out to be a tall, magnificent tree and a pessimistic seed that only grew to be a small plant eaten by an animal.

One day, Malli throws up when thinking about the scene where the soldiers killed the young man. Vasu figures out that Malli is pregnant. That’s the first time that it is revealed that Malli and the young man fornicated the one night they were together. Knowledge of the baby growing insider her and all her experiences lead to silent doubts about her mission. It doesn’t help matters that Malli sees the farmer’s comatose wife lying on a bed next door and staring blankly at her through a hole in her wall. Meanwhile, the farmer speaks to her about the joys of life and the importance of having dreams for the future, while Malli’s terrorist handler talks about how her oppressed countrymen will worship her because of the terrorist act she will do. They are counting on her, he says. Will Malli go through with the brutal plan to assassinate the VIP?

THE TERRORIST sides more with the farmer than with the terrorists. When viewers first meet Malli, she seems like a hardened patriot, as hardened as her leaders who talk much about how wonderful it is to be a martyr for freedom. (As the movie PATTON pointed out, of course, the goal of fighting for one’s country is not to die for one’s country, but to make the poor guy on the other side die for his.) Later, however, it is obvious that Malli’s experiences with the orphaned boy, the young man and the farmer and his wife are softening her soul. This is what makes THE TERRORIST so powerful an experience. Adding much to that experience are the marvelous images that director Santosh Sivan (who’s also a famous cinematographer in India) develops from the people and landscapes in his story.

Although set in a Hindu country, THE TERRORIST seems to have a moral worldview that opposes both the brutality of the terrorists and that of the soldiers they are fighting. It also contains some positive, but vague, references to God. These references are generic. Like the cause for which the terrorists are fighting, the movie appears to give no specific context to these references. At one point, the farmer even tells Malli that he’s praying for her, but he does not attach a very specific theology to his prayers, though he did previously say to her, “We never know if God listens to our prayers.” This may just be a normal expression of human doubt, however, since the farmer so strongly identifies with the optimistic seed in his little parable.

Thus, THE TERRORIST is a worthwhile movie with much to recommend it. Although the off-screen violence and the blood that is shown are strong enough for a mild caution, the rest of the movie is far more clean than the usual content Hollywood produces, on both the large screen and the TV screen at home. There is absolutely no foul language, for instance.

Clearly, Americans (and their religious leaders) have allowed their culture to become almost a complete sewer of moral degradation. Our artists are not practicing true freedom; they are wallowing in filth. Viewers should demand cleaner movies like THE TERRORIST and fewer movies like AMERICAN BEAUTY.