The Terrorist

It's the old motherhood-versus-career conflict in Santosh Sivan's roughhewn, occasionally visionary first feature, The Terrorist, though taken to extremes. Malli (the protean beauty Ayesha Dharkar), a 19-year-old guerrilla fighter for an unnamed Indian revolutionary group, is one tough cookie, whether she's coolly executing a traitorous colleague or hacking a nosy government soldier to death with a machete. Recognizing her ferocity and her zeal (her older brother was a martyr to the cause), her superiors enlist her to become a human bomb to assassinate a "VIP," and she wholeheartedly accepts. Holed up in a safe house with a garrulous old man ignorant of her mission, however, Malli gets time to reflect.

So does the movie. At first formulaic and clumsy, The Terrorist grows in originality and inspiration as Malli gropes with her decision. An intricate set of flashbacks to a tryst with a doomed comrade and enigmatic conversations with her doddering host suggest she might be pregnant. Reflecting her state of mind is Sivan's jolting imagery, which verges on the revelatory. Confined to a room full of photographs taken by its former occupant, Malli notices that one of the faces is real -- that of an old woman seen through a niche. Such epiphanies and a truly suspenseful dénouement make The Terrorist an incendiary debut.

-- Peter Keough