Bollywood tackles Maoist rebels

MUMBAI — Bollywood is taking another step away from its song and dance traditions to tackle more topical subjects, with the release this week of a film about the country's Maoist rebels."Red Alert: The War Within", starring Suniel Shetty and Sameera Reddy, hits screens in India on Friday and has been dubbed into English, Telugu and Chhattisgarhi, which is spoken in one of the areas most affected by the unrest.The thriller is the latest to tackle the realities of modern Indian life, as Bollywood searches for a successful formula to reverse its fortunes after a disappointing 2009 and a lack of box office hits so far this year."Lamhaa" (The Moment), about life in the disputed Indian Kashmir region, comes out later this month, while "Peepli Live", a satire on the divide between rural and urban India, the media and politicians, is released in August.Film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh said that although traditional "masala" love stories were still hugely popular with Indian cinemagoers, audiences now also appreciate contemporary subject matter."I think our cinema is getting more real. People are looking to watch movies they can relate to with characters that they've seen or heard about," he told AFP."It ('Red Alert') is a very interesting film and very topical at the same time. The Maoist movement is dominating the front pages of the newspapers. It's portrayed very realistically."India's government has said the Maoists -- often known as "Naxalites" after the village where the movement emerged -- are the gravest threat to the country's internal security.They have fought state and government rule in eastern and central India for decades, drawing support from landless tribal groups and poor farmers left behind by economic development.Last month rebels killed 26 police officers in a bloody jungle ambush. In April, a similar assault left 76 police dead, while in May insurgents were blamed for derailing a Kolkata to Mumbai passenger train, killing nearly 150.Director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan's film is billed

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