Since the Taliban were ousted there has been a cinematic renaissance. However, the Taliban's arrival saw theatres in Afghanistan shut down and some turned into mosques. The last Indian film shot in the country was Khuda Gawah (God's Witness), in 1982. Hanif Hum Ghum, the Afghan actor who plays the journalists' guide, told Indian reporters it was his childhood dream to act in "Hindi cinema" and Afghanistan's favourite actor is Bollywood's leading man Shah Rukh Khan. Whatever the west thinks, Bollywood still reigns supreme in Afghanistan. "Treating the ongoing struggles in Afghanistan with crude indecision and larky silliness, Kabul Express at once lamely revives buddy road pics and trivialises global politics," said Daily Variety, the bible of the US film industry. is as much about the Afghan people."Īlthough Kabul Express has been much hyped in India and the movie's director says it got a warm reception in foreign film festivals, some western critics have panned it. You know Hindi cinema goes to New York or London but is not concerned with issues relating to America or London. This is a movie shot in Afghanistan, about Afghanistan. "Mumbai studios are looking for new stories and new ways to tell them. Not only is it just one and a half hours long, but the film also contains no song-and-dance sequences. Mr Khan, a documentary filmmaker from Delhi who first visited Afghanistan in 1996 and has been back half a dozen times since, said Kabul Express was a departure for Bollywood. They gave us 60 armed commandos and we used to roll around in 35 SUVs. The Taliban wanted to send a message that you cannot have a normal life here. "I was told by the Indian ambassador in Kabul that there was a five-man death squad sent by the Taliban. The film's director and writer, Kabir Khan says that it took just two weeks before the Taliban sent death threats to the movie set. Shot over 45 days in and around Kabul, the Bombay film crew arrived in September last year during the resurgence of Taliban violence that saw three suicide bombings and the beheading of an Indian construction engineer.Īlthough Hindi movies are very popular in Afghanistan, Bollywood's joie de vivre did not appeal to the Taliban's austere moral code and the Islamic government banned the films.
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