After FOUR LIONS mocking the „career steps” of home grown jihadis there is another terrorist comedy coming up, this time from India: TERE BIN LADEN is about a young Pakistani Ali Hassan (Ali Zafar) struggling unsuccessfully to migrate to the U.S.A. Finally the news reporter ends up with an ingenious idea: With the equipment of his rundown TV channel and an Osama Bin Laden look-alike (Pradhuman Singh) he fakes one of the notorious al-Qa'ida (figure-) head’s video statements to create a scoop. Little did he know that the U.S. government takes his little spoof pretty serious so Ali ends up with the American intelligence service at his heels.
Directed by debutant Abhishek Sharma the Bollywood-style movie got some attention: Accoding to some news items the production company Walkwater Media received threatening letters accordingly accusing of supporting osama Bin laden and terrorism. Which of course could also be an advertising stunt.
Pakistan's film censor board banned the film (as it mostly happens to Indian movies), deciding that, "because of the bin Laden connection, the movie could trigger terrorist attacks in a nation already suffering from them".
TERE BIN LADEN lines up in a long tradition of comedies dealing with the particular relation between media, constructed media reality and terrorism - see WRONG IS WRIGHT (USA 1982), WAG THE DOG (USA 1997) - or french ENVOYÉS TRÈS SPÉCIAUX (F 2009) about two radio correspondents sending their Iraq features from a Parisian flat after loosing their travel money and becoming heroes of the nation when they are thought of being taken hostage by radicals.
You find the trailer of TERE BIN LADEN on YouTube HERE.
(Tanks to Christian Krauß for the hint!)
