ABSTRACT
‘Growing maturity: humour in the Hindi film on terror’ deals with the deployment of humour as a strategy to deal with terrorism by the Hindi film. Taking a long time to respond to terrorism from this perspective, original and breakaway satiric treatment marked this coming of age in Tere Bin Laden, which subverts both the traditional popular Bollywood format and the particular obsession with the theme of terrorism. Setting up a platform for self-reflexivity, these films are superb instances of intermediality, taking account of 9/11 and of Osama bin Laden as its perpetrator. Deploying wilfully politically incorrect terrorspeak, these films interrogate jingoistic notions of nation and nationalism. Marked by increasing sophistication and a distinct cinematic signature, these films use text and maps to define the boundaries of our moral response to terrorism. These Bollywood comic configurations challenge received notions of cinema to reconceptualize and consolidate the category of postterrorist cinema.
