Review: MULK

How Patriotic Is Your Beard?

2.5 stars

Mini Review:

How do you prove that you are patriotic? A Muslim patriarch

in Benaras battles to answer this question when his nephew

has been shot dead as a terrorist and his brother has died

following the legal and social troubles the family faces as a

result. Will his Hindu daughter in law help him get justice?

Or does religious fanaticism sweeping the nation currently

win? A delicate subject rather well tackled despite several

rather convenient events in the film.

Main Review:

The Rishi Kapoor that you remember as a singing, dancing hero

in Hum Kisi Se Kam Nahin is now a fabulous character actor. And

despite the typical Muslim beard (sans moustache) occupying his

face, he manages to emote brilliantly. He is Murad Ali Mohammed,

the head of a wonderful family - a wife (Neena Gupta as Badi

Tabassum), an NRI son, a Hindu daughter in law (Tapsee Pannu

as Arati Mohammed), a brother (Manoj Pahwa as Bilaal), brother’s

wife (Prachi Shah as Choti Tabassum), a niece (Ayaat), a nephew

(Prateik Babbar as Shahid) - and they are celebrating Murad’s

65th birthday. We have seen Murad living happily with his Hindu

neighbors. Everything seems happy until his nephew Shahid

blows up a bus after having been radicalised.

This is where we come across Danish Javed (Rajat Kapoor in a

wonderful, believable anti-terrorist cop role), who believes in

making a spectacle of Shahid’s capture so that other radicalised

young men will know that the police mean business. The police

investigation results in upsetting the delicate social balance in

the neighborhood. Suddenly, it is ‘all Muslims are terrorists’,

‘Murad and his family should go to Pakistan’. Stones are thrown

at their home, and his friends shun him. His brother is dragged

away and questioned and accused of aiding and abetting

terrorism by the prosecutor (Ashutosh Rana as Santosh Anand).

Since Murad is a lawyer, he promises his brother that his name

will be cleared. But the attacks from the prosecutor and the

comments from the judge (the inimitable Kumud Mishra) seem to

push Murad to breaking point. The trial is well written and very

engaging. There is a character who handles social media for the

prosecutor introduced but apart from a stray dialog about, ‘Do you

know what is happening on social media?’ nothing is really done.

The two Tabassums in the house have not much to do but to look

tragic. The daughter in law Tapsee Pannu looks too weepy in court,

which undermines the the legal argument she makes.

The religion, justice, civil rights arguments are decent and topical.

This is where Rishi Kapoor makes a fabulous case. But it is

Kumud Mishra who is the judge who makes a convincing decision

for the audience.

The film has been shot brilliantly by Ewan Mulligan (the long

continuous shot at the beginning will surprise you rather wonderfully).

The only thing that makes this film a tad weak is the overdoing of

facial expressions by Ashutosh Rana. His grimaces and his

meanness seem needless. His grin is meant to be evil, but had he

been reined in, the film would have been better. Danish Javed’s

prejudices are very well brought out. The subject of Hindu-Muslim

social relationships is volatile even after over seventy years of

independence, and this film strikes a balance, the judge’s words

making it plain. The trial seems to go on and on, and perhaps

they could have avoided repetitions and edited them. But the film

might appeal to ‘believers’ of both religions.

(this review appears on www.nowrunning.com )