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Ali Zafar
In Tere Bin Laden, pop star Ali Zafar makes his debut as a Bollywood hero - a notable coup for a Pakistani actor. Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images
In Tere Bin Laden, pop star Ali Zafar makes his debut as a Bollywood hero - a notable coup for a Pakistani actor. Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Tere Bin Laden: satire with a sting

This article is more than 13 years old
This ebullient Bollywood comedy may offend some, but for the American government it should be required viewing

"Somebody in this Pakistani government does know where Osama bin Laden is hiding," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, told reporters in Kabul this week. The accusation was an unusual thing for the representative of one government to say about another that is supposed to be its ally, but the relationship between Pakistan and the US is not exactly a model of conventional diplomacy. What an opportune moment, then, for the release of the ebullient, controversial Bollywood comedy Tere Bin Laden. "Too soon?" asked Entertainment Weekly (it concluded the answer was no). The film was immediately banned in Pakistan, with censors claiming that it could "trigger violence".

Censors aside, much of the outrage about Tere Bin Laden seems to be emanating from people who have not seen it. It is not, as many assume, a comedy about Bin Laden. It's a satire on the media and the "war on terror", in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh's Scoop. What's more, it's a very good one.

Karachi journalist Ali (played by Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar) adores the United States, described in the film as "the land of Coke and bikinis". There's just one problem: he can't get a visa. He is offered a cheap deal by a dodgy emigration agency, Lashkar-e-Amreeka (literally, Army of America; a joke at the expense of the notorious terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba), which proudly declares itself to have been "Invading US since 2002". They'll sell him a rifle, a turban and a ticket to Iran. There, he should join the mujahideen, cross over into Iraq, and surrender to the nearest American base.

"They will take you to America for free!" the agent exclaims happily. Ali worries that he will get shot, but the agent assures him that Americans usually aim below the knees. "Just keep hopping about. Even if you lose a limb, you can get a brand new one in America."

But then Ali meets chicken farmer Noora (Pradhuman Singh, who steals the show), a dead ringer for Bin Laden. So begins Ali's plan to trick the kind-hearted farmer into making a phoney al-Qaida video, which he will sell to fund a less dangerous passage to America. "We'll be heroes!" Ali says.

Unfortunately, things don't work out like that. The video goes global: markets crash, travel to the US is suspended, and – though they now believe Bin Laden to be in Pakistan – the Americans launch something called Operation Kickass against Afghanistan. "Why are we bombarding Afghanistan?" a Pakistani agent asks the American commander. "We have a budget of $100m," growls the American, in an unconvincing accent that wobbles between Scottish and Australian.

Will Tere Bin Laden offend some people? Of course, but satire usually does. There were similar storms in teacups over Team America: World Police and Four Lions. Many viewers of all nationalities and political opinions, however, will surely agree with the film's implication that the American strategy in the war on terror is overfunded and underinformed.

Doubtless some Pakistani politicians are feeling sensitive after Clinton's comments, but it would be a pity if that prevents ordinary people from seeing the popular Zafar make his debut as a Bollywood hero – quite a coup for a Pakistani actor. "I hope that members of our culture ministry and central board of film censors spend the weekend remembering that Pakistanis have a highly developed sense of humour," wrote columnist Huma Yusuf in the venerable Pakistani newspaper, Dawn. "Consider, for instance, how they are ever willing to laugh off the antics of our parliamentarians." Still, there is one person who definitely should watch Tere Bin Laden as a cautionary tale about the perception and unintended consequences of American policy in south Asia. And that's Clinton herself.

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