Mumbai, Sep 19 (IANS) Jagmohan Mundhra’s film on Islamist terrorism, “Shoot On Sight”, has been banned in Pakistan because the authorities there didn’t like their actor Mikaal Zulfikar playing a terrorist. The director says he isn’t surprised.
“Yes, they’ve banned my film ‘Shoot On Sight’ because Mikaal, who plays a closet-terrorist, is from Pakistan,” Mundhra, who is currently shooting a thriller in Mumbai, told IANS. “In a dialogue between Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, it is revealed that the young terrorist (played by Mikaal) is from Pakistan. The Pakistanis didn’t like it,” Mundhra said.
“Shoot On Sight” is based on the July 2007 London bombings. The film unfolds the turmoil in the life of Tariq Ali (Naseer), a Muslim police officer at Scotland Yard, who is asked to track down suspected suicide bombers involved in the bombings.
Mundhra is wondering how Pakistani director Shoaib Mansoor’s “Khuda Kay Liye” got released in Pakistan. “They had Pakistani actors in Pakistan playing fundamentalists. The only thing is, they didn’t show any terrorism. They showed the fundamentalism. But not the terrorist violence. ‘Shoot On Sight’ doesn’t spare the audience the violent underbelly of fundamentalism. The Pakistanis didn’t like that,” he said.
“I remember I was in Karachi some years ago when my film ‘Bawandar’ was selected for the first international film festival. While sightseeing in Karachi my hosts pointed out a huge bungalow saying, ‘Yeh Dawood (Ibrahim) ka bungalow hai’ (This is underworld don Dawood’s bunglow).”
— By Subhash K. Jha
