“Escape from Taleban” is the true story of a Bengali woman Sushmita Bandhopadhyaya, who married an Afghan national, and was subjected to many atrocities by Taleban in Afghanistan. The film, starring Manisha Koirala in the lead role, tells vividly the story of her escape from Afghanistan and her journey back to India.
Sushmita (Manisha Koirala) lives in downtown Kolkata. She marries an Afghani named Jaanbaaz Khan (Nawab Khan). She is madly in love
with him.
After some prodding by Jaanbaz, Sushmita agrees to leave her country and go with him to Afghanistan and settle there in a small town Sarana, near Kabul. Once in Sarana, Sushmita’s nightmare begins when she, like other Afghan women, becomes the victim of subjugation under the Taleban rule. She is forced to wear the Burqa and also compelled to convert to Islam.
Soon Sushmita decides to fight the Taleban hegemony and flee to India. Easier said than done. It takes her more than five years to overcome the difficulties that lie in her way. At times circumstances even force her to pick up the gun.
“Escape to Taleban” is based on Sushmita Bandhopadhyaya’s heart-rending accounts of life under Taleban in her autobiographical novels “Kabuliwalar Bengali Bau” and “Afghan O’ Ami”.
