Little Terrorist

When his cricket ball crosses into no-mans land on the heavily mined India/Pakistan border, the young "Jamal" (an engaging effort from Julfuqar Ali) tries to retrieve it - at peril to his life! Pretty soon, a pair of Indian soldiers are chasing him and he has to hide amongst the rocks whilst a local teacher "Bhola" (Sushil Sharma) is questioned by his pursuers who claim their fugitive looked like just about anything but a small boy clad in bright red. The kindly man takes him under his wing and to his village where the youngster encounters his daughter who is initially reluctant to get involved before hitting on a clever idea for him to avoid those searching! What now ensues sees the boy briefly exposed to the neighbouring - pretty much identical - culture before they try to retrace his steps and get him back home to the safety of his mother. It's a simple story that clearly wants to point out the futility of the fences, minefields and the soldiers enforcing boundaries that exist on maps only. The people on either side just want to co-exist in peace and harmony, largely wishing to reserve their animosity solely for the cricket pitch.

No Lilliput this Terrorist!

Little Terrorist Written & Directed by- Ashvin Kumar Cast- Julfuqar Ali, Sushil Sharma and Megnaa Mehtta. Rating- ****

It is interesting to note that in a country that produces nearly a thousand films in a calendar year, most of them with running times over 150 minutes; it was a clever 15 minute feature by a relatively unknown film-maker that made the final list at the Oscar 2005! Writer-editor-director and producer Ashvin Kumar's short 'Little Terrorist' is one of those movies that make a point, and a global one at that, without trying to be pretentious. Indeed, there are moments when you think that the movie is actually unaware of the emphatic statement that it is making.

Jamal(Julfuqar Ali) is a 10 year old Pakistani boy who unwittingly crosses over into the Indian border while chasing a ball during a game of cricket. Suspected as a terrorist, Jamal is helped, reluctantly at first, by Bhola(Sushil Sharma)- an orthodox Hindu. Bhola gives him shelter and food, and eventually goes out of his way to safely lead the boy back home. It is this victory of humanity over the exterior differences of caste, country and ideology that touches a chord instantly. Aided by some beautiful Rajasthani compositions, Ashvin manages to create a poignant picture of compassion which permeates dissimilarities. Ashvin has a keen eye for noticing humour in pathos, a quality similar to that of Samira Makhmalbaf(Blackboards). The bittersweet remedy that Bhola's daughter(Megnaa Mehtta) suggests to hide Jamal's identity from the Indian soldiers or Jamal's private laughter at the climax are some of the humane colours that Ashvin paints against the backdrop of the rustic Rajasthan.

In what is a brilliant marketing idea, Ashvin Kumar has tied with Shyam Shroff of Shringar distributors and has made the film available to a large audience. At various multiplexes the film is being shown at the beginning of the regular shows, at no extra cost. And 'Little Terrorist' deserves to be seen by an audience, especially in the wake of the many terrorist events that have affected nations in the last few years.

Ashvin Kumar mentioned in an interview that 'Little Terrorist' is a portfolio-building film for him. Well suffice to say, look out for his big screen debut with Irrfan Khan and Boman Irani!

• Abhishek Bandekar

Note- 'Little Terrorist' is nominated at this year's Academy Awards for the Best Short Film- Live Action.

Rating- ****

* Poor ** Average *** Good **** Very Good ***** Excellent

This film, unfortunately, has the lowest IMDb rating of all the 2005 nominated live action shorts. "Little Terrorist" was infinitely better than the winner, "Wasp", and falls second only to "7:35 in the Morning" for a well paced plot, interesting and engaging characters, and a great final message. Having lived in Pakistan before and having stood on the Kashmir border, I was tremendously impressed with the realistic portrayal of the area. Watching this film made me feel as if I was back there again (as the film is shot entirely on location) and, this time, involved in a very real, very exciting day in the life of a young boy. This film is wonderfully atmospheric and moving. A great watch!

I write this review only to counteract the unjustly poorly-rated featured review from sherlock-14.

This short film deals with a Pakistani Muslim boy who, while playing cricket in his home village, goes to collect a stray ball on the Indian side. He's spotted by Indian soldiers who wrongly identify him as a terrorist and take chase, forcing him to seek refuge with a Hindu family on the Indian side. The family, with some reservations, shelter the boy.

A tender and understated film. The location photography intimately and believably depicts the flimsy boundary between what is, in effect, one community. The boy, despite speaking the same language as his neighbours, cannot speak freely amongst them, and the surrogate family struggle to him accept him when authority dictates otherwise.

Jamal is a young Muslin living on the border between Pakistan and India. Venturing into the mine field in no man's land to recover a ball from his cricket match, Jamal is fired upon and, panicking, mistakenly flees across the wrong fence and finds himself pursued by soldiers believing him to be a terrorist. This little terrorist seems to be done for but an unlikely friend takes pity on him in the shape of school teacher Bhola.

A fairly simple film this one but one that has benefited from being topical in the west since all "our" focus is now very much in the Middle East. The film deals with the common ground between two sets of people and the human kindness that ultimately is bigger than the armed men who keep them apart. The message is simple enough and maybe some viewers will find it a bit too obvious but for me it did enough with the top level narrative to keep the subtext from being too clunky in the background. That said though, don't be coming to this expecting anything too insightful or intelligent.

As director though, Kumar is good, capturing rich colours of the locations and giving the film a good motion. The cast are fairly good but, as already said, Mehtaa's performance is the most memorable thanks to a lively character. Nothing brilliant here then but nothing that bad either. To a certain extent it did feel like it could have done more and, with a stronger script, could perhaps have built on its strengths to produce a more intelligent and meaningful message than the one it did.