The film The Terrorist (Theeviravaathi - original Tamil title) portrays a period in the life of a nineteen-year-old woman, Malli (Ayesha Dharkar), sent to assassinate a leader in South Asia through a suicide bombing. It stars Dharkar, K. Krishna and Sonu Sisupal and was directed by Santosh Sivan. Ayesha Dharkar is a British woman of Indian origin. ... South Asia or Southern Asia is a southern geopolitical region of the Asian continent comprising territories on and in proximity to the Indian subcontinent. ... A suicide bombing is an attack using a bomb in which the individual(s) carrying the explosive materials composing the bomb intend(s) and expect(s) to die upon detonation (see suicide). ... Santosh Sivan born in Chennai (Madras), southern India is an influential Indian cinematographer and film director. ...

The film is in Tamil, and is easily read as a commentary on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, allegedly by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers). Released in 1998, the film was shot in 15 days, with natural lighting, on a budget of $50,000. Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. ... Rajiv Gandhi (राजीव गान्धी) (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991), the first son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 6th Prime Minister of India (and the 3rd from their family) from his mothers death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat. ... Tamil Tigers emblem The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, is a guerilla military organisation fighting to establish an independent Tamil state, to be called Tamil Eelam, in the north-east of Sri Lanka. ...

Actor John Malkovich first saw the film at the 1998 Cairo International Film Festival, and subsequently adopted the film as a kind of post-facto executive producer (the reissued film's titles read "John Malkovich Presents"). John Malkovich at the Grimme Online Award 2005 at Schloss Bensberg. ...

Inspiration for the film

On May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was campaigning in favour of a UCPI candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Tamil Nadu, when he was assassinated by a suicide bomber in the Indian town of Sriperumbudur, near Madras. May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rajiv Gandhi (राजीव गान्धी) (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991), the first son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 6th Prime Minister of India (and the 3rd from their family) from his mothers death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ... A suicide bombing is a bomb attack on people or property, committed by a person who knows the explosion will cause his or her own death in addition to the attacks primary purpose (see suicide, suicide weapons). ... Sriperumbudur, located in close proximity to Chennai, is a town in Kanchipuram district of Tamilnadu, India. ... Madras refers to: the Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, the former Indian state, now known as Tamil Nadu (Plural of Madra): Ancient people of Iranian affinites, who lived in northwest Panjab in the Uttarapatha division of ancient India. ...

The suicide bomber Thenmuli Rajaratnam A.K.A Dhanu is widely believed to be have been a LTTE member. Dhanu was a cousin of Shivarasan, the supposed mastermind of the assassination. Thenmuli Rajaratnam was the assassin who killed Rajiv Gandhi, herself, and 16 others in a suicide bombing on May 21, 1991, in the Indian town of Sriperumbudur, near Madras. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

This assassination marked the first high profile use of the suicide vest now used by suicide bombers the world over. (Palestinian terrorists are alleged to have taken the idea of the suicide vest from the Tamil Tigers.) Dhanu wore the belt bomb with the explosive material in her lower back region and the power pack, two switches and the circuitry in front. An explosive belt (also called suicide belt, suicide vest or shaheed belt) is a vest packed with explosives (and often also with nails, screws, bolts and other objects to serve as shrapnel to maximize the number of casualties) and a detonator that is worn by suicide bombers. ... The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

When Santosh Sivan, a well-known cinematographer, wanted to make a film on terrorism and about a terrorist, he chose the above events as the inspiration for his story. Santosh Sivan born in Chennai (Madras), southern India is an influential Indian cinematographer and film director. ...

The film is not a direct biography of Dhanu, as Dhanu was never known to be nervous about her mission, had a whole troupe working with her, as backup in case she failed.

External links

• Official Website
• The Terrorist at The Internet Movie Database
• Santosh Sivan on low budget filmmaking
• How John Malkovich God-Fathered Sivan's The Terrorist
• Interim Report of the Jain Commission of Inquiry into the Assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) [1] is an online database of information about actors, movies, television shows, television stars and video games. ...

Further reading

• Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism by Robert Pape, Random House (May 24, 2005), ISBN 1400063175