A 1997 Indian Tamil-language film, The Terrorist follows a 19-year old female cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) named Malli (Ayesha Dharker) in Sri Lanka on her mission to carry out a suicide attack on a high-profile target.
This film contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Malli, of course, being a female suicide bomber.
- Ambiguous Ending: The film ends as Malli fumbles with the detonator for her explosive belt; in the final shot before the credits, it falls from her hand, leaving open the question of whether or not she actually pressed the button.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Malli gets pregnant by having sex with a fellow cadre just once without meaning to (for bonus points, it's right before he dies).
- Offing the Offspring: Malli, though pregnant, doesn't stop her suicide mission, and thus takes her unborn baby away to death with her (although whether or not she actually detonates her explosive belt is not clear).
- Oh, Crap!: When Malli finds out she's pregnant, after having been sent on a suicide mission. The father, a fellow cadre, is already dead from wounds he received in combat. In fact, it appears they had sex just before he died.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The LTTE are in fact one of the first organizations to make use of suicide bombings, specifically the explosive belt, now taken up by Hamas among others.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Malli learns she's pregnant by a fellow cadre, who's dead (they had sex just before he died). However, rather than having the baby, she goes through with her suicide bombing mission (possibly).
- Suicide Attack: The center of the film's plot is the protagonist planning a suicide bombing against a political target in India.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The film is based on the Real Life assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991
, in retaliation for his sending an Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka in support of the Sinhalese government the LTTE were fighting, and alleged atrocities committed by them against Tamils in the conflict.
