The Diplomat

 

The Diplomat movie review: John Abraham overcomes limited acting range with arresting choices

The Diplomat movie review: It would have been tempting to drown this film in bigotry. But the Pakistan-bashing—of course there is some-- stays low-key.

By...Amit Singh

Based on a true story, The Diplomat is about an Indian woman lured into a false marriage with a Pakistani man, and how her life spirals into a nightmare.
The backdrop of terrorism-and-espionage is, by now, very much a John Abraham zone, and here he plays JP Singh, the diplomat who moves from suspicion-to-support when the terrified Uzma Ahmed (Sadia Khateeb) seeks refuge within the Indian embassy in Islamabad.

Abraham may have limited emoting range but his choice of projects, especially when he wades into tricky territories of espionage and terrorism, have been noteworthy, and the sincerity with which he goes at those choices, is even more so. To choose to unpack the ordeal of a woman who is, yes, Indian, but also Muslim– the ‘but’ a sad reality in these polarised times–takes a special kind of courage, but Abraham’s mustachioed, phlegmatic diplomat stays staunch, and you can see the actor leaning into the character.

It would have been tempting to drown this film in bigotry. But the Pakistan-bashing—of course there is some– stays low-key, the characters who play the vicious tribals amongst whom Uzma is trapped balanced by those who are able to see reason. Singh’s Pakistani counterpart (Ashwath Bhatt, leaving a mark) whipping up a ‘Gadar’-style chase after the cavalcade carrying Uzma towards safety seems to be the kind of stock filmi guy whom we can all hate on, his ugly hectoring of Uzma being another thing he does well. To give us relief, there’s Kumud Mishra playing a twinkly-eyed lawyer, and a stern judge who ultimately bends towards justice.

But Abraham is no hand-pump-yanking-yelling-shouting character. His Singh is shown being calm even in the most difficult circumstances, and in a couple of places, manages to land a couple of the kind of wry humorous lines that Sharib Hashmi, playing his ear-to-the-ground embassy colleague, is much more capable of.

Sadia Khateeb does an excellent job, revealing the extent of Uzma’s pain and terror, leading the latter to take the extreme step which threatens to turn into a full-fledged diplomatic/political row between the two countries. As Uzma’s uber-violent ‘shauhar’, Jagjeet Sandhu (‘Mehsampur’, ‘Leila’) is so believable that he makes you flinch. Revathy, playing the real-life Sushma Swaraj, the Foreign Minister at the time, is terrific as usual. And there’s enough tension, despite the occasional chest-thumping and the flag-waving and the basic story-telling, to keep us with the film.

The Diplomat Review: John Abraham Plays It Safe

Among many, many, MANY things, it makes a point to mention that the movie, which is based on the true story of Indian citizen Uzma Ahmed, is neither a biopic nor a documentary, neither condones nor endorses the views put forward and so on and so forth.

In 2017, Uzma became national news when she sought the Indian high commission's help to get her out of Pakistan.

There's significant cinematic value to her harrowing experiences and Writer Ritesh Shah and Director Shivam Nair dig into it to recreate the drama, if not the danger.

Searching for jobs in Malaysia, Uzma (Sadia Khateeb) meets a Pakistani national called Tahir (Jagjeet Sandhu) whose sympathetic ways and concern for her thalassemia-diagnosed daughter from a previous marriage make her believe they could have a future together.

On reaching Buner, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, where Tahir invites her under the pretext of the child's treatment, Uzma -- traveling without her daughter -- discovers he's an altogether different man quite like Sally Fields discovered in Not Without My Daughter.

He belongs to a Taliban-like ultraconservative community and is already married.

 

A forced nikaah as well as endless episodes of violence on her sexual, physical and mental being compel Uzma to plan her escape as guided by a relative in Malaysia.

Considering the horror she's experiencing, the said relative's dispassionate tone towards her SOS call telling her to contact the Indian embassy as if it's as simple as taking a U-turn from Nariman Point is one of the few bewildering moments in an otherwise subdued thriller.

The other is a subplot involving random phone calls made by the deputy high commission's alarmingly curious son, perhaps, to underscore how little time he has for daddy duties when preoccupied saving Bharat Ki Beti.

John Abraham plays Jitender Pal Singh aka JP with a prim moustache and pecs poking through his crisply ironed slim fit formal shirt but the only action he delivers is a smile and some snark.

Careful not to ruffle the feathers of ISI or ministry of foreign affairs on foreign soil, creating a rapport with its friendlier magistrates, saying it like it is to a supportive boss (a maternalistic Revathy as Sushma Swaraj), leading a bunch of colleagues reassured by his solid governance or taking a politically correct route to protect a young woman from a hellish fate, John meets The Diplomat's expectations with firmness and charm.

As Uzma, Sadia Khateeb portrays the dread and distrust of a wounded figure as crushingly as her desperation.

There's a glimpse of Vidya Balan's genuineness in her intensity that makes her safe return home a cause worth rooting for.

Every time India and Pakistan are in the same frame, one's patriotism and another's punching becomes the norm. But the makers insist on seeing a humanitarian side to the conflict instead of a Indo-Pak clash.

'Woh ek alag behas hai', The Diplomat insists.

It's not always true.

The mandatory kohl-eyed men across the border are inevitable.

Not to mention a foreboding Ashwath Bhatt as Bollywood's go-to actor for pestering Pakistani parts (Mission Majnu, Raazi) acting like a perennial spoke in the wheel.

But the higher ups in the ministry of foreign affairs and Islamabad's high courts are regular professionals guided by sense not politics. At the heart of it, it's Pakistan fighting Pakistan to help India.

Except The Diplomat has picked a side and slyly declares its one-upmanship at any opportunity.

'Diplomacy aur deshon ke saath chalti hai, yahan pe hamesha ice skating,' explains JP.

It's one of his better argued opinions as opposed to the usual patronising tone and one-sided nonk-jhonk.

There are several sides to the story woven around this Bharat Ki Beti, which as on the nose it may sound is exactly how it was phrased by the government and media. But The Diplomat wants to focus purely on the gritty and glorious bits.

And so retired Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by the Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism, is mentioned in passing but speculation finding loopholes in Uzma's account are omitted as is Pakistani media coverage.

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