Sivan's Terrorist shoots onto US hit list
RAJEEV MASAND

Santosh Sivan's Terrorist has popped up in exalted company with a sixth place nomination on Hollywood insider and film critic Harry Knowles's Best of 2000 Film List. Enumerating his 15 personal favourites for the year, the list has been posted on his website www.aint-it-cool-news.com, easily one of the most frequented cinema sites available. ironically, enough when the film was released in India, it generated much media curiosity and received favourable reviews, but was a washout at the box-office.

Grabbing a screening of Terrorist `off the coast of Nicaragua in a Dutch cruise ship filled with film critics and movie fans' Knowles was moved to describe the film as ``a stunning and beautiful film about a young, beautiful Indian girl named Malli, played by Ayesha Dharker, who enters into the world of terrorism.'' He further explains that ``this film has no country by name, no political beliefs by name and no religious beliefs by name. Instead, it's a brilliant story about a teenage girl, who instead of existing in our world, has embraced the world of mine fields, explosive vests and suicide missions.''

Knowles also remarks that ``if there was any justice in the world, she would be nominated for Best Actress.'' He adds: ``But alas, she has no Big Academy Campaign to push her.'' Given the Academy's tendency to mostly ignore Asian films, it is unsure whether Dharker will receive an Oscar nod for her performance. However. the film did help her nab a teensy-weensy part in the next installment of George Lucas' Star Wars. Dharker landed a role in the film when the casting director borrowed a video cassette of Terrorist from actor Samuel Jackson, who had located the film after reading the fulsome praise lavished on the film by Hollywood veteran John Malkovich in an article in The New York Times.

On Knowles's list, Terrorist shares the spotlight with other celebrated movies like Requiem For A Dream (first), Girl on the Bridge (second), Ang Lee's martial-arts masterpiece, the Oscar-frontrunner Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (third), Sophia Coppola's directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides (fourth) and Dark Days (fifth).

``The first 10 films are virtually or nearly at a tie in my mind, with the order coming only on the slimmest of preferences,'' says Knowles, adding ``in assembling the list, I had to finally bring in things like historical significance and personal repeat watchability.''

Also recommended are films like Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical Almost Famous (an Oscar hopeful at number seventh), Spike Lee's mostly-ignored Bamboozled (eighth), Willem Dafoe-starrer Shadow of the Vampire (ninth), animated gem Chicken Run (tenth), woman drama Girlfight (eleventh), the Coens'comedy Oh Brother Where Art Thou (twelfth), M Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable (thirteen), Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (fourteenth), and Raymond De Felitta's Two Family House (fifteen). Last year, he remembers, the same list ran a total of 30 films. ``That does show the type of year we've had,'' Knowles says.

Over the years, Knowles has attracted much attention from Hollywood studios and film-makers for his scathing film reviews but more importantly for unearthing vital information on movies still in production. At the end of each year he posts a list of the best films he has seen during the year in his travels across the globe for international film festivals and sneak screenings of both Hollywood and foreign films. He has often championed little-publicised movies with big potential, and has also severely knocked big-budget extravaganzas with little soul in them.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.