Bollywood plans UK bomb film
2006-01-10 11:29
Ramola Talwar Badam
Bombay - The July 7 London transit system bombings, the fictional flight of a failed bomber and a look at what could turn a young Muslim into a killer are parts of a new Bollywood movie being written by a veteran Indian filmmaker.
Mahesh Bhatt said his film, tentatively titled Suicide Bomber, will focus on an imagined bomber who fails to detonate his explosives, flees to his mother's homeland, India, and begins to question his mission.
Like most Bollywood movies, it will include songs and dancing.
"It's not a replay of what happened in London," Bhatt said on Monday. "That event was a trigger to get into the mind of a (fictional) suicide bomber born in Britain to a Pakistani father and Indian mother."
Four suicide bombings on the London Underground and a bus killed 52 people on July 7.
No one has been arrested in connection with the blasts, although police have nabbed those believed to be behind failed July 22 copy bombings.
Manhunt for suspects continues
With police still searching for those who trained and financed the deadly strike, Bhatt said he would use the character of the fictional failed attacker to explore a bomber's psyche.
"What happens to the guy if he is alive now? Will he be filled with remorse?" said Bhatt. "What happens to his commitment to die, or does it stoke his thirst for life? That is where this story is born."
The movie shows the failed bomber stifled in an atmosphere where minority rights are violated as Western authorities combat terror after the attacks in the United States on September 11 2001.
The bomber also sees daily news of Muslims being killed in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
"So he is seduced by an ideology and believes by hurting the infidels he can reign them in," said Bhatt.
But when his mission fails and he flees to India - a predominantly Hindu country with a sizeable Muslim minority - the bomber begins to question killing innocents.
The movie is slated to star Bhatt's son, 21-year-old Rahul, as the bomber, and shooting should begin in Britain and India in July.
- AP