Killer not terrorist: Visual articulations of terror in Bangladeshi action cinema

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between the account of terror presented in the popular action cinema of Bangladesh and the acts of terror they describe. Popular action films have eagerly taken on terrorists and other criminal types in their spectacular narratives. Through conversations with film personnel involved in the creation of these films, I consider their interpretation of terrorism as it becomes presented on celluloid. I explore the relation between the imagination of terror and the acts of violence that instantiate this imagination. I argue that the action cinema shows a reluctance to differentiate clearly between terrorists and other criminal and violent figures in its style and narratives. This points to an understanding of the culture of violence and impunity that has characterised Bangladesh since independence.