MovieChat Forums > Kabul Express (2006) Discussion > expect respect from an Indian film???

expect respect from an Indian film???


so now you Afghans know, that Indians only see you as amusement and as pawns against Pakistan. I watched portions of this film on youtube.com, and it was very derogatory towards Hazaras and Pakistanis. The portrayal of Afghans in this film was not much better either. It is also of no surprise since it is a Bollywood film and the only people they are going to portray as "civilized", will be the Indians walking around mocking everyone else.

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first of all, have you even watched the whole movie? if you have not, you are NOT qualified to comment on it.

you have totally and COMPLETELY misinterpreted this movie. by the end of the movie the audience wills the pakistani taliban fighter to get to safety and when i watched it i hated the fact that he got shot by his own troops. the taliban fighter is the hero of this story and not the two indian fools..i had nothing but respect for him as he left the money for his daughter..

the indians in the movie were a couple of bumbling idiots, inexperienced journalists who didn't really do much except get kidnapped...and argue about cricket..WHO did they mock? they were far too scared!

i'm an indian, by the way...unlike you pakistanis, i am able to laugh at myself..and i will retract this statement when you are able to criticize your own country on these forums..

and please, remind me again, what's the name of YOUR film industry? the whole of the West has hollywood, and in Asia just one country india by itself has created bollywood..which your country watches anyways..

and YOU are trying to incite hatred!! i'm sorry i'm finding it very hard to keep my cool here, because you are just trying to convince afghans that india apparently hates them too! this is not true, don't try to recruit allies in your fruitless and pointless war against india!!

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Well said tdcsubs...

Bande me tha Damm
Vande Mataram

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I don't think indians will ever understand the fault in the film!

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Look around the threads on this forum and others and you will find plenty of humor and self-criticism by pakistanis. There is nothing to appreciate in this film which is why I condemned it. This film is an example of Indians being very clever,making Afghans and PAkistanis fight while the Indians pretend to be wonderful sophisticated folks. It sickens me.

India supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Soviet occupation. dont pretend as if you give a damn about Afghans.

btw this stinking film was banned in Afghanistan because it is openly derogatory to Hazaras as well. Why expect civility and humor in an INDIAN film??

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Tdcsubs

With all due respect, I think it is you who has misunderstood this film. Yes, we do have sympathy for Shahid’s character. But the point of the film is that he’s been sold out by his government: embroiled in a war he didn’t want and then abandoned behind enemy lines.

And while the film is a cheap shot at the Pakistani government, it also shows incredible disrespect to the Afghans. To juxtapose footage of a veiled woman being executed with a Laurel & Hardy routine from our two heroes is not black comedy, it’s just dismissive. Kabul Express COULD have been a great film (even a great black comedy) but it bottled it. It couldn’t present a serious discussion of the war. It couldn’t show a proper Talib as a human being. Afghanistan is a theme park in the movie: it’s National Lampoon’s Afghan Vacation, not Dr Strangelove.

Re: Bollywood. Unfortunately quantity is no guarantee of quality. I’m not saying that Bollywood doesn’t produce some good films, but I’d rather buy one twenty-year old Bengali movie than be given 100 Bollywood ones. I’m sure it’s pointless to protest that this is not prejudice since, given my knowledge of Bollywood movies, it plainly is. The point is, is it accurate?

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"To juxtapose footage of a veiled woman being executed with a Laurel & Hardy routine from our two heroes is not black comedy, it’s just dismissive"

huh ? what ? which movie did u see?

the movie i saw didnt have any scene of laurel and hardy routine by john and arshad killing a woman in veil?


are u mental ??? lunatic?


also the impression i got from the film, was that afghanis are brave and good folks, who were oppressed by the russians and the talibans

also pakistani PEOPLE have been shown to be normal good people who love their country, nothing wrong in that, but oakistan the government is shown as a coward, which is also CORRECT, if u REALLY believe NO pakistani was in afgan as talibans, then better tie a black cloth over u r eyes and stop seeing anything at all.....


just as everyone know iraq had no WMDS, saddam isnt the hitler they make him to be, afganistan was victimised, pakistan is a sly regime, trying to grovel to the west..... as for india, its a country who could have been great, but isnt so, due to its own fault, but we indians TRY, we havent given up yet...
also terrorism doesnt help much.


This is YOUR LIFE and it is ending one minute at a time!

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>the movie i saw didnt have any scene of laurel and hardy routine by john and arshad killing a woman in veil?

The first scene has either documentary footage or simulated footage of a veiled woman being executed by shooting in a football stadium (this happened, so it may or may not be actual footage). The second scene had John and Arshad arriving by Helicopter with the comedy relief one essentially saying “another fine mess you’ve got me in to. I felt this juxtaposition to be clumsy/in extreme poor taste.

are u mental ??? lunatic?

I don’t suppose my denying this will change your opinion.

> also the impression i got from the film, was that afghanis are brave and good folks, who were oppressed by the russians and the talibans

But there aren’t many Afghans in the film, and the ones who you do see are either exploitative, militia, bandits, lynch mobs or a bit simple. Which noble Afghans are you talking about? Sure, there are lots of well framed pictures of burnt out buildings, but no real characters. If this film had been made by Americans or Europeans it would have created uproar.

> also pakistani PEOPLE have been shown to be normal good people who love their country, nothing wrong in that

Nothing. But with respect we only see two types of Pakistani in the film, the first is the Talib and the second are the soldiers. These are not “normal” Pakistanis. Meanwhile, the government is portrayed as filthy backstabbing scum. Pretending sympathy for the people while criticising their leaders is a typical propaganda device: “lions led by donkeys” is not a saying invented in the UK, for example. The whole premise for the film, as it unravels, is an attack on the Pakistani government, which would be fine if (a) it actually had a choice (b) the film hadn’t come from a country known to be opposed to the regime and (c) had some sense of its relative importance in the hierarchy of wrongdoing in the conflict. None of these tests are met. It’s just a cheap shot designed to appeal to the Indian audience’s prejudice against Pakistan. Hardly the stuff of classic modern cinema.

> but we indians TRY, we havent given up yet...

Sure, whatever, yawn…

> also terrorism doesnt help much.

What, you mean like that guy who killed Mahatma Gandhi – oh, no wait, he was a Hindu, wasn’t he…

But look, I’m not saying that India is bad or that Indians are bad. I’m not saying that the west is good or that Pervez Musharraf is necessarily a fine upstanding citizen. I’m just saying that Kabul Express is a terribly simplistic load of old cobblers that could have been a serious study of the conflict, could have been a decent black comedy but ended up just taking cheap pot shots a country unfortunate enough to have a land border with a state which has been variously fought over by British, Soviets, Americans and Mujahideen. India, in the same position, would have done exactly the same. Britain would have done exactly the same. Therefore, Kabul Express’ analysis of the conflict is worthless rabble rousing bunk designed for the amusement of its domestic audience. At best patronising, at worst insulting.

I push better art out of my ar s e.

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Pakistan govt has more courage than the cowardly Indian govt, which put 1 million troops on the border in 2002, then backed off when Pakistan tested a few missiles.

This movie was typical Bollywood garbage, making Afghanistan, Afghans and Pakistanis look like noble savages while the Indian were portrayed as modern, smart and upright. I didnt expect anything else from a Bollywood film. Indians are to biased a people.

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i am an indian and i felt very bad when i saw that guy getting killed. I think it was a bad ending written by the makers and was not needed.

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I thought that was a pretty good ending.

Not in a racist way or anything. But if he lived it would've just ended up being another one of those prissy Indian movies where everythings happy-go-lucky in the end. I liked the fact that yash chopra had the balls to just let him die - realistically, that's what would've happened anyway.

On anothe rnote. What the hell is with you guys? You're practically having a heartattack over the racism. Now, forgive me, my knowledge of Afghany national sects is practically non-existant.

But yes, there are derogatory terms about the Hazra. And yes, they've been oppressed plenty. BUT, considering these insults were made by an Afghany, it's just realistic? Wouldn't it be realistic to say that plenty of Afghanis have been taught to hate them?

Perhaps that's what Yash was insighting? The prejudice amongst Afghan society. I mean, I REALLY don't think it was meant to be racist. If you watched an english movie with a racist guy in it, obviously him saying 'PAKI' isn't going to make a loada Pakistanis cry - because IT IS a movie, and the character IS racist. How else are you meant to portray a mindset without actually, well, acting it out in a film? Yes it was racist, but it's realistic.

No one should really be offended, they were trying to show many perspective on the situation. And I don't know why Pakistanis feel so offended. I'm a pak myself - and I really don't see it. By the end everyone wants the pakistani talib to live anyway - where the hell's the racism?

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