The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Read the book, seen the movie & in case anyone is interested, for me, the book scored over the movie!

Mira Nair gets some parts right & then there are those jarring notes, despite the beautiful, haunting music, which flows through the film.

Riz Ahmed, as Changez Khan, deftly handles the journey, from being a young lad, from an upper crust family in Pakistan, which falls upon hard times, to effortlessly living the American dream – Ivy League college, dream job as a consultant with a leading firm on Wall Street, finding love with an American photographer (Kate Hudson, who looks unnecessarily old & unfit) & on the fast track, to the top of the corporate ladder, as the blue eyed boy of his boss/mentor, played efficiently by Keifer Sutherland.

So far, so good - until the horror of 9/11 happens & suddenly, life in the US, as a Muslim, is not a bed of roses for Changez. Like in the book, he articulates that, shocked as is, while witnessing the ruthless crashing of the twin towers, there is an irrational part of him, which smiles, almost as if pleased, at what is happening.

The events that follow, where Changez, because he is a Muslim, is the target of suspicion, the object of hatred, in the US and is humiliated & strip searched at the airport, don’t seem enough reason for him, to suddenly lose interest in his career, grow a beard & moustache, to highlight his being Islamic, despite the gentle hints by his boss, that his appearance is a cause of concern & after a dream promotion, abandon it all defiantly, to go back to his motherland. Riz Ahmed conveys more hurt, at being betrayed by his lover, rather than by America! Unlike in the book, here, the viewer is left with the lingering regret that he is so near, yet so far, thanks to his own actions, from attaining his childhood dream!

Back in Pakistan, the disillusioned Changez, despite his family’s disapproval, joins a local college as a lecturer, voices his new found distaste of the Americans & tries to arouse nationalism & pride in the youth of Pakistan.

Mohsin Hamid, created a silent American, to whom Changez narrates his story – Mira Nair transforms the mute stranger, to a journalist, who works for the CIA, played crisply, by Liev Schrieber, who is trying to investigate, if Changez is responsible for the kidnapping of an American academician, who is suspected to have links with the CIA.

Mira Nair brings her signature, larger than life, ethnic tone to the film – with Shabana Azmi and Om Puri, as Changez’s parents, their decaying upper middle class existence, the hip, westernised sister, the musical soirees, with sublime Sufi music ...

But unlike the book, the movie, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, made me, the viewer, ‘The Relcutant Believer”!