There is a kind of movie spree in Mumbai on the subject of bomb blasts in India. This will not be an exaggeration to call 2008 as Hollywood's terror year. Nishikant Kamat's recently released 'Mumbai Meri Jaan' will soon be followed by 'Hijack' based on the hijacking of an Indian airliner and 'Ruslaan' showing the fallout of the train blasts on a young Muslim. Then, Karan Johar's 'Khan', a movie on global terrorism is in the making. In the past, 'Black Friday' probed the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts while 'Sarfarosh' told the story of a young medic who quit college to join the Mumbai police to chase trans-border arms smuggling racket and a dreaded ISI agent. Similarly, director Vidhu Vinod Chopra made 'Mission Kashmir', tracing the life story of a young Muslim boy orphaned by terrorist attacks. Mani Ratnam filmed 'Dil Se' depicting the picture of doomed love between Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala because of terror involving a radio announcer and a beautiful suicide bomber.
In this very category falls director Mani Shankar's 'Mukhbiir' that is releasing, Friday, August 29th. He considers this movie as an improvement on his earlier '16 December'. Mani Shankar admits that his earlier movies suffered, presumably 'Rudraksh' and 'Tango Charlie', from too much research and too little emotions! In 'Mukhbiir', he claims to have a fine blend of plot and characters besides research and emotions. He says that 'Mukhbir' stars Sammir Dattani in the lead role of an informer. In fact, this is the biographical story of a boy's journey inasmuch as Sammir's character wants is to have an identity, besides having a girlfriend and a normal life. But he can't do these things, according to Mani. The director believes that cultural and religious identities are crucial to the hero's character in 'Mukhbiir'. Though Sammir holds the mother goddess close to his heart, he has to convert himself totally to Islam. The character even undergoes a circumcision. He finally believes in the oneness of God and dies a Muslim.
