After watching Miss Lovely and taking a shower to clean off the mental grit, I was in the mood for a bright cheery Bollywood film with romance and lots of absurd fat musical numbers. This sure looked like a promising candidate. Three young Indians meet in college in New York and fun, flirting and games follow. Look at that poster. Two men and one one woman just smiling - this is going to be as light as a feather. Ok, probably a love triangle will raise its ugly head but all will end happily because it's a Yash Raj film. Yash Raj Films were behind three of the biggest feel good movies ever - Kuch Kuch Dilwale,  Dulhania Le Jayenge Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. So I am just going to sit back in comfort and be happy. Hey, wait a second. What the hell is going on? I didn't sign up for this. Terrorists and they aren't dancing? And wait isn't that Sonu from Miss Lovely looking horrified. What is he doing in this film? So things did not go exactly as planned.



It begins with a taxi being stopped in New York City and guns found in the trunk. Then the FBI raids the apartment of Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh), places him in chains, puts a bag over his head and accuses him of being a terrorist. One look at his baby face and you know he is no terrorist. FBI agent Roshan (Irrfan Khan) lays out the facts - that was your taxi and we can bury you and torture you for years and no one will ever know. You have no rights because of the Patriot Act. Omar is justifiably scared shitless - he isn't even a citizen. He can be made to disappear. If the viewer is thinking - no that doesn't happen in America - yes it did to over a thousand Muslims in America who they had no evidence on - only suspicions. No rights, no lawyers, no justice.



Omar, Omar - tell us about your friends in college. That was years ago. 1999. Tell us. Well, there was Maya (Katrina Kaif) who I met on the first day and she introduced me to Sam as in Samir (John Abraham) who was as American as apple pie - the best at everything. Omar, Omar wake up - tell us why you have not been in touch with them all this time. That ugly love triangle I mentioned and Omar was the loser. Not too surprising. Sam is a hunk. Why do you want to know all this? Because Sam is a terrorist and we want you to become part of their family and report back to us. Or spend the rest of your life down a dark hole. Ok, when do I begin but there is no way Sam is a terrorist. Are you going to plant evidence on him like you did on me? We do what we have to do.



Later on when Sam admits he has terrorist tendencies he explains why. It will make your skin crawl because again this really happened in our country, in our democracy. Because he had taken some pictures of the Twin Towers a few days before 9/11 he is taken in and tortured for nine months before they finally release him. You know the drill - head in the toilet, water boarding, loud music so you can't sleep, beatings. They made him a terrorist and there is a part of you that fully understands. It is a strange film that can make me sympathetic towards people who want to blow up my city. But damn we do shitty things to people in big ways and in small ways to take away their humanity. That doesn't make this a great or even important film - it is a bit clunky, slower than need be and has an ending that will make you roll your eyes - but it is interesting seeing this from an Indian point of view and not an American. The world sees us so much differently than we see ourselves.