MovieChat Forums > Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist (2000) Discussion > Ending ***SPOILERS***

Ending SPOILERS

posted 20 years ago by mrpads
24 replies | jump to latest

I haven't seen this film in a while, but the ending disappointed me. Throughout the film we were given her struggle over her beliefs, sense of duty and coming to terms with her pregnancy (i think, can't quite remember very well). The end where she goes to press the detonator then drops it spoilt the whole thing for me. A far better ending IMO would have been her hovering over the button and then leaving us to decide whether she would have pressed it. This would, I feel, have forced us to think further into the film, watch it again maybe, work out what she would have done.

Don't get me wrong though, this film was great as far as i remember, very engaging.

[–] willywilly 15 years ago

The main problem with the dead man's trigger idea would be that there'd be no choice involved between pressing or dropping the trigger - unless perhaps she thought it better she succumb to the cul de sac and let the bomb destroy her rather than make the final choice to press a button and kill herself and child.

[–] mynameisdumbnuts 15 years ago

I just finished watching this movie for the second time, and my interpretation is that Malli chooses not to press the trigger. I agree with the poster up top who says the movie is only loosely based on the assassination of Rajiv Ghandi, so it's a fallacy to assume she pressed the button just because his attacker did.

Regarding the blackness after she drops the trigger, my DVD has a couple of blackouts in that scene, where Malli is shown from different angles as she kneels at the VIP's feet. I interpreted those as the thoughts of her embryo (which is why they show nothing -- embryos don't have brainwaves that early on), and the last one is her embryo continuing to "think," which means she chose life. The fact they flash up as she is faced with her life-or-death decision says to me she is very conscious of her unborn child the entire time.

Malli is very in tune to children; I believe the first time we see her smile is just after she is chosen for the mission and the boys are staring at her as she waits for the leader. She comforts Lotus and is distressed by his death. She notices the children running across the stream when she is at Vasu's. I see her decision not to press the detonator as a continuation of her desire to spare children suffering.

I agree with whoever said she likely dies anyway for being a traitor, thus bringing the movie full cycle. Although the optimist in me likes to think she eluded her comrades and Vasu helped her get to safety. :-)

Anyway, those are just my thoughts. Feel free to pick 'em apart.

[–] RRHowell41 13 years ago

I just watched the movie (I know, years behind the rest of the movie-watching world). If it were a dead-man switch, why did they work hard to train her to PUSH the switch?

But what I did not understand was why someone, knowing she was struggling with this mission, did not rig a back-up? I kept expecting that, having decided not to push the trigger, we would see someone in the background with a garage door opener, setting off the explosion for her anyway.

I can't imagine her living more than a few hours at most after turning down this glorious mission. No one is going to let her live and raise her baby-to-be.

She has saved the people around her (in whom she never expresses any interest), and has avoided suicide and baby-cide.

If it's ambiguous, then I would have to believe she actually pushed the trigger during the blackout--which seems odd, but I suppose I could manage that. Sure doesn't look that way to me.