Oh to laugh like this!

'Tere bin Laden' was a laugh riot. I don't know if Pakistan is really the way it is depicted. Maybe it's a Pakistan created for Indian consumption, just like 'Slumdog Millionaire' was an India created for the West. But even for a Pakistani watching the movie there are positives. Even if AK-47 carrying Mujahideen are shown waiting in travel agents' offices, looking for a way to get to the USA, the protagonist of the movie is shown reasonably shocked at being suggested a terror camp route to the States. And Noore the poultry farmer and Osama look-alike is both affronted and distressed at being included in a Jihadi video.

Hmm... Don't go by the above paragraph. The movie is a continuous laugh-fest from the beginning where a landing airplane sends a journalit's wig flying, to the end where an earnest ISI agent is admitted, screaming, to a mental asylum.

Nice to have a movie that gives you a closer, even if not very accurate, look at Pakistan. Seem to be a sober, restrained and grounded people. And the same can be said about the movie too, sober and restrained comedy - none of the over the top, artifi-exuberant and corny stuff that makes up funny Bollywood movies these days. The gaali-baazi too was kind of funny - where the gaali has to be given, and has to offend at one level, but at the same time not offend at another. Like "teri penanu...lassi pilaawan, teri maanu...dahi." Surprising sensibility, given the usual impression one has of Pakistan.

Five out of five, and two thumbs up!

PS: The movie kinda pre-empts in some respects a funny story I thought up while sipping beer at Chicago airport recently - about an ISI spy in the US. Hmm. Given the amount of writing I do these days, all my good ideas are going to get pre-empted anyway.