Mission 11 July

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Another film that sets out to tell us how ordinary Muslim youth become disaffected and angry. Another long,hard-to-watch talkathon.

First off,’Mission 11 July’ which takes off from the attack on Parliament a few years ago,has a backdrop we’ve seen several times before. Shahid ( Khanna) is a good-natured young fellow,who loves his ‘ammi’ and his ‘watan’ with equal fervour. Along comes a bad professor ( Moutho) who starts mouthing lines about ‘sachche Musalmaan’ and ‘qaum ke liye ladaai’.

This goes on and on,and then,right when we think this is all there is to it,along comes the half-way mark. Shahid is now a complete convert to the cause of ‘his’ people,and is all set to play with ‘gola’ and ‘barood’,when he comes across a good Musalmaan ( Gokhale). And of course we all know what happens next : the Parliament building is still standing,isn’t it?

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com