The Reluctant Fundamentalist Review

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Cast: Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland
Direction: Mira Nair

A young Pakistani armed with a Princeton degree arrives in America with corporate dreams. His starry-eyed vision is on track as is his love life with his white girlfriend, an artist. Then the planes crash into World Trade Center on 9/11.

That was 10 years before the point where we find him at the film’s start, in a Lahore chai shop narrating his life to an American journalist. He has swapped his dapper looks for a bearded image, and he could be leading a group of extremists.

Mira Nair's new film oscillates between the dream past of its protagonist Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed) and his very questionable present to bring out the impact that the Muslim identity has suffered in the wake of the WTC strikes. If the idea sounds predictable (even if you have not read Mohsin Hamid's novel of the same name on which the film is based), the title of the film itself is a giveaway on what theme to expect.

Tracing Changez's life through time cycle, the film is meant to unfold as a political thriller. The socio-cultural subtext is adequately drawn and The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a fine shot at understanding contrasting voices, instead of blindly dismissing fundamentalists as mere destructive forces. The crisis that 9/11 brings in Changez's life, forcing him to alter his westernised vision, makes for a fascinating character study.

Questions that the film leaves wide open, though, are obvious. Is retribution the only way out? Should every wronged Muslim be compelled to chuck the positivity of life and take up the gun?

The film is trademarked by Nair's love for opulent frames. The ethnic Sufi score in the background adds to the rich tones on screen. Indeed, Mira Nair always manages a new twist when it comes to presenting eastern exotica for the West.

Nair though could have gone slower on the mush tangles and melodrama that cut down pace of the suspense. The editing (Shimit Amin) is slack in parts, a reason why the film seems inordinately long despite a runtime of around two hours and 10 minutes.

Riz Ahmed scores with the varying shades of Changez as the character's transformation is laid bare. The prop cast boasts of several prized names from Hollywood and Bollywood. Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland get restricted screen space but they are a treat as ever, a big reason why the film remains an engaging watch.