AGENT VINOD Banned In Pakistan Following Negative Portrayal Of ISI!

Banned in the PK!

Saif Ali Khan's new film Agent Vinod has been banned in Pakistan following a censor board decision last week. The film portrays Khan's title character as a cross between James Bond and Jason Bourne on a journey around the world trying to stop the detonation of a nuclear weapon. Unsurprisingly, some of the more villainous characters turn out to be members of Pakistan's military intelligence service, the ISI. This was apparently more than Pakistanis could bear and the film's scheduled release last Friday was canceled.

India and Pakistan don't have the greatest of relationships, in fact, their border is among the most heavily fortified and disputed in the world. Back in 1965, Pakistan banned all Indian film imports from showing on their screens. Of course that didn't stop them from coming in, as Indian films are also among the most quickly and frequently pirated movies in the world. However, it was an official dictate until 2008, when the exchange of ideas was formally approved. However, I guess showing a film that features your country's military special forces as war criminals intent on wiping India off the face of the Earth isn't the kind of film Pakistan is willing to pass off too easily.

Khan is taking it all in stride, surely he saw this coming. Pakistani intelligence in the film are shown as conniving thugs, and the one sympathetic Pakistani character, played by Kareena Kapoor, has recently been released from prison on a terrorism charge. In a recent interview with the Indo-Asian News Service, Khan is quoted as saying:

"Agent Vinod is for Indians but it is not against Pakistanis. But I understand if they get upset because we are beating them up quite often in the film."

That doesn't exactly show a whole lot of remorse, but that's pretty much Khan's M.O.

Meanwhile, the film did pretty decent numbers over the weekend, though most box office watchers are predicting a steep fall-off next week as reviews have been pretty abysmal on the whole. They probably could've used that territory's receipts, oh well, can't win 'em all.