The Terrorist: war drama.  Starring Ayesha Dharkar, Vishnu Vardhan, Bhanu Prakash, K. Krishna, Vishwas and Gopal. Written by Santosh Sivan, Ravi Deshpande, Vijay Deveshwar. Photographed and directed by Santosh Sivan.  In Tamil with subtitles. Now playing at Bay Area Theaters.

Two-thirds of the way through the screenings at 1998’s Cairo International Film Festival, actor and jury member John Malkovich had had enough.  After one too many mediocre movies (make no mistake: foreigners make as many bad movies as the U.S. does), he was reduced to turning his chair upside down, sitting against it on the floor and making wisecracks at the passing parade of often well-meaning, but apparently lame cinema.

Then he and his fellow judges were silenced by a beautiful, strange and compelling film from India called The Terrorist.

Malkovich was so knocked out by the film, he immediately offered to become its patron and shepherd its release in this country. A year and a half later it has arrived. It was well worth the wait.

The Terrorist’s simple story follows the last few days in the life of its titular character, Malli (radiantly played by Ayesha Dharkar), a young and perfect killer fighting an unnamed guerrilla war against an unnamed enemy. This orphan of war has known nothing but violent death most of her life. Locked up in a militant hothouse, she’s so cold-bloodedly good at her job, she interviews (in an excellent sequence) and qualifies for the ultimate mission: a suicide bombing whose target is an unnamed political VIP on a campaign visit to an Indian City.

“You’re the perfect weapon,” her faceless Commander tells her before sending her off to her death. “A thinking bomb.”

What he forgets is that this strength is also an Achilles Heel.  For as she leaves the war zone to travel to the City to carry out her mission, she starts thinking in ways he never intended.  The farther away she gets from the war and closer to her own death, her perspectives shift in unexpected ways that are dangerous for single-minded absolutists bent on destruction.

A more prosaic filmmaker would have mined the movie with obvious dialogue. But co-writer and cinematographer/director Santosh Sivan, is too smart for that. He lets the pictures tell the story most of the way. A young guide Lotus (Vishwas), also orphaned by war, leads her through the mine-laden forest to her mission, and opens her eyes up to nature and the beauty of a young life still hopeful despite war’s cruelties.  Her handlers and trainers in the big city have her stay in the house of an old farmer for the four days leading up to the attack. This fascinating old gentlemen is somewhat pithy and observant about the meaning of life, while all the while his beloved wife lies silent, locked in a seven year coma brought on by the death of their son.  In this, she learns there are more ways to suffer than the ways war has taught her. What astounds her most is that the old man has surrendered to either rage or despair.

Her encounters also awaken memories of a brief romantic liaison with a dying fellow terrorist, who tells her he’s buried all his books and will only dig them up again, when freedom has been won. But now that he’s dead, his books remain buried.

Her journey towards death, becomes a journey towards life. Everywhere Milla looks she finds her militancy, her cold stern faith in the revolution, challenged by messy, beautiful existence. The world becomes more beautiful to her the closer she approaches that fateful split second. She becomes a curious kind of hero. You root for her to stop herself from accomplishing her mission

Despite its violent background and gory scenes, The Terrorist isn’t for action fans.  Its $50,000 budget and 17 day shooting schedule didn’t allow for elaborate pyrotechnics. Most of the killing happens off camera.   Director Sivan put his resources into what’s going on inside Milla’s mind and how it’s affected by the world she passes through. The effect is oddly meditative.

The Terrorist was inspired by the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, but is never specific about the war being fought or the assassination target. Sivan’s concerns are broader than the transient politics of the moment. This keeps it from being just another trendy docudrama and makes it something more.  The Terrorist offers itself up as a small beacon of hope.

The look of the film is astoundingly ravishing and accomplished, especially considering its budget.  It’s lush with jungle images and lovely eye-filling compositions. The greens are shockingly strong, especially when contrasted with the blood spilled throughout. The way Sivan shoots Milla’s encounters with the farmer’s comatose wife at first chills you: he photographs her as though she were a ghost, spying from the next room.  But as Milla discovers the truth about the old woman she becomes something more.

The sound design has an eerie meditative effect.  Though the film is obviously, at times clumsily, dubbed. But Sivan effectively emphasizes an unusual choice of sounds, mostly that of rushing and falling water.  Water, of course, is a symbol and source of life and a signpost of Milla’s growing awareness. It works like a mantra that can channel the viewer’s thoughts towards the idea of peace in a way that no amount of sentimental hectoring can.