ABSTRACT
‘Mumbai under attack: gnawing away at the innards’ focuses on the recurrent attacks on Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, emphasizing that the most effective way to terrorize a nation is to pulverize its economic hub. Quick filmic response to these terror assaults was natural for Mumbai-based cinema, the familiarity, and accessibility of the location making filming easier. Hence, all major terror attacks on the city are covered, noting the links between contemporary events and terrorism. Mumbai-based films are characterized by: the psychologization of the terrorist impulse; the Mumbai cityscape; a postterrorist film lexicon; post-9/11 Islamophobia; the techniques of intermediality, docu-drama and flashbacks; the tight thriller format marked by confident, slick editing, and sensitive, perceptive direction, all working to raise the standing of the postterrorist Hindi film. All the time, the new experimental approach is paralleled by continued use of the Bollywood formulaic approach to terrorism.
