They say reel life often imitates real. They year 2008 has seen a lot of terrorist attacks in India. The prominent ones which immediately come to our memory include the deadly blasts which rocked the city of Jaipur in May and the Bangalore serial blasts in July which was immediately followed by more than a dozen or so blasts that rocked the areas in and around Ahmedabad.

Strange, as it may seem, many of our movies which released this year have been based on the theme of terrorism. While some were based on real life incidents, others have been fictional. Never the less, 2008 has been a year where terrorism not just wreaked havoc in our lives, but also made it presence felt in our movies. Here is a list of some movies (released 2008) set against the backdrop of terrorism.

Aamir

Not many people expected a lot from this small budget movie. After all, it did not have any real big stars, it had a new director Rajkumar Gupta at the helm of things and add to it the fact that it was released in the same week as biggie Sarkar Raj. However, once the first show was done, people came out praising this sensitive movie about a man who is unknowingly and unwillingly made to commit a heinous act of terrorism.

The movie was appreciated by critics and the paying public and soon television blue eyed boy Rajeev Khandelwal had established himself as an actor to watch out for in the near future.

Mission Istaanbul

Director Apoorva Lakhia decided to make a movie on international terrorism and its repercussions after gave a blockbuster as Shootout At Lokhandwala. It is quite a strange coincidence that the day his movie Mission Istaanbul opened across the cinema halls and theaters on 25 July, the city of Bangalore witnessed around 7 serial blasts. In fact the very next day, even Gujarat (Ahmedabad) was rocked by bomb blasts.

With the country facing such a grave situation, the last thing people wanted to do was go out and catch a movie depicting terrorism. Hence, Mission Istaanbul which had stars like Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Suneil Shetty besides clones of George Bush and Osama Bin Laden fell in to the category of movies that just came and went almost unnoticed.

Contract

After the political drama Sarkar Raj, Contract was director Ram Gopal Varma’s second release of 2008. The promos emphasized the fact that while Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya gave an inside view of the underworld and Company gave an overview of the underworld, Contract depicted the nexus between terrorism and underworld.

In spite of being known for making movies on the underworld, this effort from Ram Gopal Varma did not find many takers. The fact that the movie starred newcomers also did not really help its cause. This was like a bomb which fizzled even before it could explode.

Black & White

After specializing in directing musicals, revenge sagas and love stories his entire career, showman of Bollywood, Subhash Ghai, decided to shift gears and experiment with a serious movie about a suicide bomber out to spread terrorism in the capital.

The movie had Anil Kapoor and debutante Anurag Sinha in lead roles and like all of Ghai’s movies, this one also had good prevailing over evil in the end. Despite being honest in its intentions, the movie did not find too many viewers but Subhash Ghai nevertheless had proved his mettle as a fine storyteller in this genre too.

Hijack

Hijack is an action thriller. Shiney Ahuja is known for his intense roles in movies like Woh Lamhe, Life In A Metro and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, but with his latest upcoming release Hijack, he gets to do some heavy duty action sequences. As the name suggests, Hijack directed by noted ad filmmaker Kunal Shivdasani talks about a plane hijacked by a group of terrorists who have certain demands.

Shiney plays the chief maintenance officer at the airport and gets involved in the proceedings as his small daughter is in the hijacked plane. While Hollywood has seen some really good movies revolving around the theme of hijack, Bollywood has only superficially touched upon the topic in movies like Zameen and Yeh Dil Aashiqana. We hope this one indeed promises to have some hi-octane, adrenaline pumping action.

A Wednesday

Strangely out of all the movies released in current year that depict terrorism in some way or the other three of them have been from the stable of UTV. First came Aamir (UTV Spotboy to be precise) then Mumbai Meri Jaan and recently UTV Motion Pictures presents A Wednesday.

The movie, directed by debutant director Neeraj Pandey, is a fast paced, edge of the seat thriller where the story infolds on a particular Wednesday. The movie brings together two of the finest talented actors of our industry Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher, who would be seen sharing a screen space after a really long time.

Mumbai Meri Jaan

Director Nishikant Kamat may not be a well known name in Bollywood but the fabulous Marathi director won a lot of acclaim for his Marathi movie Dombivili Fast that depicted the plight and frustrations of the average Mumbaikar with elan. For his Hindi directorial debut, Nishikant decided to touch the topic of the train blasts that rocked the city of Mumbai on 11 July 2006.

The movie which stars some really talented actors like Irrfan Khan, R Mahadevan, Soha Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal and Kay Kay Menon talks more about the way the blasts affected the lives of citizens of Mumbai. Mumbai Meri Jaan opened across cinema halls recently on 22 August and has been liked by audience all over the country.

Besides the above mentioned movies there were many other movies which touched upon the topic of terrorism in some form or the other like the following.

Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam

Despite being a comedy, showed a theater troupe trying to sabotage a terrorist attack.

Hope And A Little Sugar

Spoke about a family’s turmoil post of 11 September (mostly know as 9/11) terrorist attack in America.

Tahaan

Depicts the life of people in the valley of Kashmir through the eyes of a small boy.

Chamku

Spoke about a Naxalite hired by the RAW to carry out secret operations.

Mukhbiir

Speaks about the terrorism and underworld as seem from the point of view of secret informers.