Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist (1999)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Santosh Sivan

Writers:

Santosh Sivan (story)
Santosh Sivan (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 October 2000 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Her death will not be ordinary.

Plot:

A young female terrorist goes on a suicide assassination mission, but her resolve to complete it is put to the test.

Plot Keywords:

Assassination | Terrorist | Terrorist Plot | Soldier | Terrorist Group

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Ayesha Dharker	...	Malli
K. Krishna	...	Lover
Sonu Sisupal	...	Leader
Vishwas	...	Lotus
Anuradha	...	Sumitra
Bhavani	...	Old Lady
Parmeshwaran	...	Vasu
Gopal	...	Gopal
Saravana	...	Traitor
Anna Durai	...	Photographer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bhanu Prakash	...	Perumal
Shyam Sunder	...	Army Officer
Vishnuvardhan	...	Thyagu (as Vishnu Vardhan)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

India

Language:

Tamil

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:M | France:U | UK:12 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Company:

Moderne Gallerie Motion Picture

Movie Connections:

Version of Malli (1998)

Too Individualized

The strong side of "The Terrorist" is its realism, its weak side is its romanticism. That it has sides that don't integrate is its biggest problem.

Yes, the personal is political, but it should never subsume the political. Important social issues and serious collective structures cannot be reduced to psychology, nor can a specific liberation effort be universalized. Although this Sri Lankan resistance force is viewed rather fairly and quietly for a good while, in the end, it's stereotyped as a manipulative, doctrinaire organization, demanding and glorifying martyrdom. (It's as if the more individualized and symbolic Malli becomes, the more generalized and symbolic of terror the resistance army becomes) But more disturbing is the swallowing up of the content of the actual movement for social justice of an oppressed people. What is it that drives this extreme tactic in the first place. And why isn't this central to Malli's thoughts? And why and how does angst-ridden thinking under such dire circumstances make sense? All the hard training, planning and danger involved in such an action gets eclipsed by all this personal conscience material. And the heavy reliance on close-ups merely underscores this separation of the individual from the collective. As does the over the top symbols engineered through the love story, the pregnancy (sex with a dying soldier is the winner), and the potential birth--of a son (?).

This is not to say Malli's inner life is not important, but rather that it's focused on at the expense of the outward world-bound look that is the pivotal contribution of any social change movement. Who can Malli be or become without this perception of the injustice and inequality endured by her people? This whole yes-no Macbeth kind of thing strips the actual in favor of the universal. What we really want to know about her, but cannot know because of her isolation, is whether she is a part of the resistance, and if so, what will be her participation within it? How does a woman find her place in it? Malli can certainly find a place with Vasu and with the dying rebel because both men are singularly un-male (and lend much to the film). But they are also quite removed from time--one by circumstance, the other by his choice to live outside the greater social fabric, preferring the path of wisdom to the path of history, and thus outside the resistance that Malli is tied to. Imagine a film with Malli and Vasu sparring with each other's opposing positions or philosophies as she prepares for her action--much more interesting I think.

PS The provocatively negative title only reinforces the apolitical nature of the film. (not sure of the Indian title)