Terrorist, The Review

In an unnamed part of India, waging an unspecified war against established authority, a group of well-armed rebels audition a passionately committed group of young women for a suicide mission. 19 year old Malli - Ayesha Dharkar - is the chosen one. We don`t know much about her at this point, except that she can be a cold-blooded killer and that her father was a martyr to the cause. She`s sent on a guided trek through the forest with a young boy as a guide towards her penultimate destination where she pretends to be a student of agriculture to a very perceptive and compassionate farmer... This is the first feature film from award-winning cinematographer Santosh Sivan. He uses a number of stylistic devices - lots of medium and close shots of the central character with blurred events happening behind her, incessant water images but unfortunately is stuck with a sound effects track that mars his efforts. I don`t know that we get as much insight into the mind of a terrorist that a film such as The Bandit Queen offered but The Terrorist is certainly an interesting and quite powerful film about a mindset that can veer when faced with life or death decisions....