A short Review of the Film 'Mujahid' -- so that you would make an effor to see it.

I saw this screening last week at CSUN. This movie by Shahid Nadeem may not win an Oscar, but perhaps it ought to be nominated, if not for its cinematography, but at least for its ability to bring forth a perspective that ought to cry for a place in the American, or for that matter, in the much of the world's psyche today. And that perspective is the "other side" of terrorism: the human side of the "Mujahid", once a freedom fighter, and now a "terrorist". As you will see, they fought a conventional and insurgency war in Afghanistan, not the one of "bombing", suicide or remote-controlled! Though you don't get to see professional warriors on the other side, you see that the Mujahids fought and vanquished soldiers; no blowing up of civilians. How that transformation came about is not the subject of the movie, but with an Eagle's eye, one might actually see it.

You get almost a first hand glimpse of the full effect of what Congressman Charlie Wilson ("Charlie Wilson's War' by George Crile) had enshrined in Pakistan and Afghanistan to strike a final fatal blow to the Soviet Union --the 'Evil Empire". The movie brings out yet another "Blowback" (Chalmers Johnson's book) of the other 'Evil Empire" - CIA and the US Foreign Policy - though nowhere in the movie is there even a suggestion of it. The exposure of how Islam was hijacked in the service of that war is effortlessly depicted in the movie - a service for which America will for ever have to be grateful (though now disdainful) to Saudi Arabia!

But all that is in the flashback! The brilliance of the movie, in my opinion, is what is latent even as the movie begins: the tragedy in the dichotomy of "Islamization" then, and "De-Islamization" now! By the ending, you get the eerie feeling that the monster will just not die! If one were to visit Pakistan today, one cannot miss the disharmonious co-existence of the two in the very air!

Shahid Nadeem's greatness as a film maker lies in his ability to show the human side of this tragedy without making any judgments, political or otherwise. That is why you will not come out wondering about the ones who ribbed the lamp and brought out the genie in the first place!

The movies' relevance to the post-911 world cannot be underestimated. I sincerely hope everyone will take the time to see it.