"Terror masala."

Eerie timing. Seetha Narayan's piece "Terror masala" appeared in the Boston Phoenix on the very day that a militant group staged its deadly coordinated attacks in Mumbai: "Bollywood films' various depictions of terrorism are hardly naive, and their well-intentioned hyperbole is the very thing that makes them palatable. They wear their hearts on their sleeves and present a world of physical exuberance, family bonds, fights, love, anger, tears, and speechifying. The terrorist, emerging in a sea of such strong emotional currents, is not a particularly scary bogeyman. It's all very well to humanize the terrorist, but why does Bollywood do it, and is it a good idea?"

Posted by dwhudson at November 28, 2008 1:31 PM