''International Guerrillas'' (Original title: International Gorillay) is a 1990

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

film from Pakistan, originally released in the context of the Satanic Verses controversy. The movie portrays

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

as its main villain.With Rushdie's Approval, Britain Lifts Its Ban on Anti-Rushdie Film
Suzanne Cassidy, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Retrieved 27 Nov 2015. The film was made in the

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

languages. it also features several musical numbers including songs and dances.Review
at ''Nanarland.com'' (in French), Retrieved 27 Nov 2015 The film was produced by

Sajjad Gul Agha Sajjad Gul () is a producer, director and one of the media moguls in Pakistan. He is the youngest of the sons of renowned film studio owner and a pioneer of Pakistan film industry, the late Agha G. A. Gul (1913 – 1983). Aijaz, Riaz ...

, who described it as a purely commercial project rather than an artistic one.

Plot

The film's protagonists are three Pakistani brothers, the older one being a police officer and the younger two, small-time hoodlums. The three brothers ultimately reconcile in the light of the controversy over ''

The Satanic Verses ''The Satanic Verses'' is the fourth novel from the Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical re ...

'': in a dramatized version of the

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

police firing on a mob on 12 February 1990 when five demonstrators were killed and 83 injured, their younger sister is killed by the police while demonstrating against Rushdie. The three brothers decide to avenge her and Islam's honor by hunting down and killing Rushdie. They receive the help of a female police officer in the course of their mission.

, played by Afzaal Ahmad, is portrayed in the film as a sadistic criminal mastermind, working for an international conspiracy devoted to destroying Islam (as the Muslim faith is an obstacle to his wishes of building

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

nightclubs A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...

and

brothels A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe t ...

around the world). He is depicted as hiding in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, guarded by a private army led by an

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i general.

Saeed Khan Rangeela Mohammad Saeed Khan (1 January 1937 – 24 May 2005), better known by his stage name Rangeela, was a Pakistani actor, comedian, director and producer. He was also a professional bodybuilder, a billboard painter, a writer (both a screenwrit ...

stars as "Chief Batu Batu", Rushdie's main

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

henchman. Rushdie lives a life of

hedonism Hedonism is a family of Philosophy, philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that all human behavior is Motivation, motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. As a form of Psycholo ...

and other excesses and routinely amuses himself by torturing and killing the

mujaheddin ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in '' jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commu ...

s who regularly try to hunt him down. He also enjoys torturing Muslims by making them listen to readings of ''The Satanic Verses''. The protagonists arrive in the Philippines and start their hunt for Rushdie, who escapes them repeatedly thanks to the use of multiple

decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''eenden kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to ...

s. In the course of one of their attempts to kill Rushdie, the three brothers appear wearing

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

costumes. The Israeli general's sister is sent to seduce one of the Muslim guerrillas but ends up falling in love with him and ultimately converting to Islam in the final scene. The film ends with a

gunfight A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...

opposing the four "International Guerrillas" and Rushdie's army of Israeli henchmen. The heroes defeat the villains and, as Rushdie attempts to flee the scene, three giant

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

s appear in the sky and fire lightning bolts at the writer, incinerating him.

Cast

* Ghulam Mohiuddin *

Mustafa Qureshi Mustafa Qureshi (born 11 May 1938) is a Pakistani film and television actor. He has acted in more than 600 movies, in Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi languages. He is best remembered for playing the antagonist Noori Natt in '' Maula Jatt'' (1979) ...

Babra Sharif Babra Sharif (; born 10 December 1954) is a Pakistani film actress, best known for her acting roles from the mid-1970s to the 1990s. She is one of the most popular actress of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as well a leading actress in urdu films. She ...

* Hamayun Qureshi * Naghma * Afzaal Ahmad as Salman Rushdie.

Temporary ban in the UK and response by Rushdie

The film was denied a certificate by the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films exhibited ...

, effectively denying it a cinema release in the UK. The board cited the safety of Salman Rushdie as an argument for refusing the certificate, arguing that it could inflame some to violence. Although the film portrayed Salman Rushdie very negatively, he opposed the ruling of the BBFC, arguing that: The ban was overturned, and the film was classified at 18. Rushdie later said, "If that film had been

banned A ban is a formal or informal prohibition of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as embargoes. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning ...

, it would have become the hottest video in town: everyone would have seen it". While the film was a great hit in Pakistan, it enjoyed only a limited release in the West, where it went virtually unnoticed., Retrieved 27 Nov 2015

References

External links

*, Retrieved 27 Nov 2015
Review
at Thehotspotonline.com, Retrieved 27 Nov 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:International Guerillas (Film) 1990 films 1990s Urdu-language films 1990 action thriller films 1990s musical drama films Film controversies Films originally rejected by the British Board of Film Classification Pakistani multilingual films Punjabi-language Pakistani films Pakistani action thriller films Pakistani political thriller films Cultural depictions of Salman Rushdie 1990 drama films 1990s spy action films 1990 musical films