Maar Dala (Attention!:Spoiler for Fanaa!)

Maar Dala Aamir Khan Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1998), Mangal Pandey (2005) Films in which Aamir died : Rang De Basanti (2006) and Fanaa (May, 2006) Terrorist films that stuck to the formula: Gulzar's Maachis (1996) & Mani Ratnam's Dil Se (1998) Terrorist films that stuck to the formula: Khalid Mohamed's Fiza (2000) & Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Mission Kashmir (2000)

Maar dala

Aamir Khan dies yet again in Fanaa, following the terrorists-must-die formula of Bollywood

Subhash K Jha

Is Aamir Khan stricken by a death wish? Yashraj Films' Fanaa, which opens in May, will be his third film in a row where he dies in the grand finale. In Ketan Mehta's Mangal Pandey - The Rising and Rakeysh Mehra's Rang De Basanti Aamir played a historical and semi-historical character, and had to perish accordingly.

But Fanaa is a different cup of tea. In the film, Aamir, for the second time in his career, is cast as a grey character. Earlier, Deepa Mehta had cast Aamir as a rabidly communal Muslim in 1947 Earth.

In Fanaa Aamir is cast as a terrorist and a lover. It's a poignantly hard-hitting tale that gives Aamir a chance to do what he likes best – play a tragic lover. He started his career as a hero in Nasir Husain's Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, where the desi Romeo was killed at the end. Cousin Mansoor Khan had shot two endings – one was happy, the other, tragic. Aamir, obviously, preferred the latter.

Earlier, Rajesh Khanna loved to die on screen. Aradhana, Safar, Andaz, Aap Ki Kasam, Amar Deep, Namak Haraam, Roti…. Khanna 'died' so often, the joke went that he had to die for the film to stay alive. Does Aamir enjoy being a tragic hero too?

Some years ago Aamir had confessed that death is indeed his favourite subject. When a very close young relative had acquired a heart disease, Aamir felt he was going to suffer the same consequence. "I don't know how it happened. But I suffered exactly the same symptoms as my relative. I thought I was going to have a heart attack," he had said. It was only after a long visit to the hospital that Aamir was convinced he wasn't dying.

In Fanaa the actor gets to play out a favourite obession. Unlike his last two releases where he died a hero's death, here he's placed in a position of moral ambiguity, akin to Hrithik Roshan who was killed by his own screen-sister Karisma Kapoor in Khalid Mohamed's Fiza.

Must terrorist-heroes die in Hindi films? Chandrachur Singh did in Gulzar's Maachis, so did Tabu and Suniel Shetty in Hu-tu-tu . In Mani Rathnam's Dil Se Manisha Koirala, playing a human bomb, takes down her lover (Shah Rukh Khan) as she goes up in flames. In Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Mission Kashmir Hrithik Roshan, a Kashmiri militant journeys into doom and death.

So, does the terrorist-hero always have to be annihilated at the end for the precarious moral equilibrium of our cinema to survive? Not quite. In Santosh Sivan's lyrical Terrorist Ayesha Dharkar played a human bomb who changed her mind and tricked the tick at the last second. "I wanted to show that the journey into terrorism isn't always one-way. That there's hope for recovery and rehabilitation at the end of the dark journey," says Sivan. However, for now Fanaa has yet another terrorist hero travelling the route of destruction.

that is actually a good question, but at the same time, not always is there a good ending in real life. I mean people die and people move on - movies that are made, in a way represents society.
Thanks 4 shaing that with us! 😛