Nation divided over bin Laden comedy

Promotional poster for the film Tere Bin Laden. Photo / Supplied.

PAKISTAN - A Bollywood comedy featuring a look-alike Osama bin Laden that is generating a lot of interest among cinema-goers in India after its release at the weekend has been banned in neighbouring Pakistan.

Pakistani censors said the film ridiculed their society, was offensive to Muslims, portrayed bin Laden as a "coward and ridiculous", contained vulgar language and could fan hostility among "fanatic and fundamentalist elements" in Pakistan.

Pakistani censor board vice-chairman Masood Elahi said there was no justification for the film's release under the prevailing circumstances, a veiled reference to the worrisome proliferation of Islamic radicalism and frequent terror strikes by Muslim insurgent groups in his country.

Tere Bin Laden (Without You, Laden) is a tongue-in-cheek comedy about an ambitious young news reporter from the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, who is desperate to migrate to the United States in pursuit of the American dream.

Frantic attempts by him to emigrate are neutralised after his visa application is repeatedly rejected.

But he then comes across an Osama bin Laden look-alike and hatches a scheme to produce a fake video of the al Qaeda leader and sell it to a local news channels as a scoop.

Unfortunately, there are serious ramifications as the White House gets involved and dispatches an overzealous secret agent on his trail, resulting in a series of ridiculously comic situations.

"We have seen a lot of serious films, but this [Osama bin Laden] was a subject which deserved a satire," film director Abhishek Sharma said.

"It has dominated our psyche for so long that we need to see it in a funny way," he added.

And though the film is a situation comedy, Sharma says he has been careful about the authenticity of locations in Karachi, facts about Osama bin Laden and the context of the story.

"It is a farce but rooted in real issues," Sharma says of the film that took him four years to make on a modest US$2 million ($2.8 million) budget.

Starring Pakistani model and singer Ali Zafar as the reporter and Indian Bollywood star Praduman Singh as the fake Osama, the spoof has been banned in Pakistan over fears of attacks by Islamist militants.

A disappointed Zafar has appealed to the Pakistani authorities to review their decision, claiming the film was not controversial.

"It's just a comedy," he said.

Critics said that while they thought the film was a "shade amateur", its acting and script were "smart".

The film was also released in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Britain at the weekend and is to be shown in the United States soon.