Tere Bin Laden: Dead Or Alive
Director: Abhishek Sharma
Actors: Pradhuman Singh, Sikander Kher, Manish Paul
Rating: ***
Although terror by now is very much a humour sub-genre, this film you can tell right away has drawn much from Tropic Thunder (2008). And I say this first looking at actor Sikander Kher morphing himself completely into another specimen, like Tom Cruise did in that kickass Hollywood comedy.
Sikander’s a complete laugh riot as a half-demented CIA agent, who with a button attached to his neck can instantly switch himself into impersonating a pot-bellied Punjabi producer.
This film is meant to be a sequel to the 2010 sleeper hit Tere Bin Laden, by the same film team. But, strictly speaking, it’s really not. If anything, this movie is far more self-aware.
Tere Bin Laden, set in Karachi, was about a fledgling cable TV reporter who’s out to make a fast buck shooting a fake Osama video. The filmmakers (“Shetty Sisters”) here turn the camera on to themselves, suggesting that that Bollywood film they’d made was a hit; but now the cast and crew are in trouble because two rival factions want a piece of the fake Osama.
Osama is of course dead. But the Americans don’t have a video to prove it. They’d like to shoot one. The jihadi terrorists, on the other hand, lobbing grenades in their Olympics, would like to believe Osama is still alive. A video as evidence will further please the faithful.
As you can tell, so far as writing goes, this is fine flight of imagination. As a film it is appealing enough for you to take that extreme leap of faith.
Pradhuman Singh plays the fake Osama bin Laden. He was absolutely the key reason we loved the first part, in the first place. Pradhuman is incidentally also the screenplay and dialogue writer of this film. I’m glad this talent was suitably excavated. Besides Osama, the reason to sit through this sequel is it also has Obama, who’s equally well handpicked by the way.
The movie along the way takes fine pot shots at both the Taliban type terrorists and the US President, the CIA, with their drones and the dumbos. We’re of course all fine with that.
I can’t help but gently wonder if the same rules of humour would apply if one made a similarly comical feast with our own Prime Minister’s lookalike getting roasted likewise. Oh no, that would be anti-national, no? How intolerant of me to even suggest that!
But here’s the thing about such spoofs though. Especially ones set against terrorism. And God knows we’ve seen quite a few of those in Bollywood lately—Welcome To Karachi, Bangistan, Shakal Pe Mat Ja etc.
These movies operate under a very delicate law of diminishing returns. Most of them, self-indulgently push the farce so far, that you stop caring about the film altogether.
Tere Bin Laden: Dead Or Alive, retains a fine balance. It is, for the most part, black comedy at its best. Yeah it does stretch things a bit much towards the final few minutes.
But then again, if America could stretch the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ argument this far, and the jihadi terrorists can go to these lengths for promised virgins in heaven, why not a movie? How does one seriously comment on a world so farcical anyway? A totally funny flick like this really makes more sense sometimes.
Review By: Mayank Shekhar
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