Via the Guardian:
Not since a goose-stepping chorus line of stormtroopers celebrated Springtime for Hitler in The Producers has there been a less likely topic for a musical.
Bollywood has gone one better than Mel Brooks' Nazi parody by making a film about the Taliban, complete with song-and-dance numbers.
The Afghan zealots who flogged women for wearing high heels have been brought to the screen in Escape from Taliban.
The film is not a burlesque but aims to be a serious exposé. It stars the Hindi actor Manisha Koirala, playing an Indian woman who marries an Afghan Muslim against her family's wishes. She goes to live in Afghanistan and runs a pharmacy which is destroyed by the Taliban.
The film is based on the story of Sushmita Bandhopadhya, who lived in Afghanistan for six years, fleeing the country in 1995 after the Taliban issued a death sentence against her for refusing to convert to Islam.
Yes, a "serious exposé" with song and dance numbers. Is it just me or does anyone else think there's something more than a little ironic about a musical story to do with the Taliban? But it doesn't stop there:
Meanwhile, Escape from Taliban star Koirala is tipped to play the lead role in a Bollywood film based on September 11.
Made by the director of the Taliban film, Ujjal Chattopadhyaya, this movie will tell the story of an Indian woman who loses her husband in the terrorist attacks.
To be shot in India and the US, the film is expected to begin with the New York attacks and end with the December 13 assault by gunmen on the Indian parliament in New Delhi, an attack which has been described as "India's September 11".
No doubt this one will feature song and dance numbers as well. Oy...
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