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Direct from Bollywood: Taliban the musical (!!!)
Source: The GuardianNot since a goose-stepping chorus line of stormtroopers celebrated "Springtime for Hitler" in The Producers has there been a less likely topic for a musical. Bollywood has gone one better than Mel Brooks' Nazi parody by making a film about the Taliban, complete with song-and-dance numbers. The Afghan zealots who flogged women for wearing high heels have been brought to the screen in Escape from Taliban. The film is not a burlesque but aims to be a serious exposé. It stars the Hindi actor Manisha Koirala, playing an Indian woman who marries an Afghan Muslim against her family's wishes. She goes to live in Afghanistan and runs a pharmacy which is destroyed by the Taliban. The film is based on the story of Sushmita Bandhopadhya, who lived in Afghanistan for six years, fleeing the country in 1995 after the Taliban issued a death sentence against her for refusing to convert to Islam. I can hear the theme music now . . . If I were a Taliban If I were a Tally-tally-tally-tally-tally-tally-Taliban All day long I'd read from my Koran If I were a Taliban . . . Okay, so I'm not Andrew Lloyd Weber. Back to the story: Bollywood is famous for its 'wet sari' scenes, but there are no wet burkas in Escape from Taliban. However there are at least five songs in the Hindi version, cut to just two for the English-language film. One of these songs features in a wedding celebration and the other is sung by the heroine when she is homesick for India. Cinema was banned when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, but Bollywood films were a favourite of the underground video shops that sprang up. Cinemas showing Indian films now play to packed houses in Kabul and streetsellers offer postcards of actor pinups. Posted by: Mike 2003-02-19 |
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