Excellent but underrated film

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist directed by Mira Nair wants to examine what it is to be liked to be caught up in a cross fire of differing cultures and religion which makes you question your own identity.In the background of the kidnapping of an American diplomat, a reporter, Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) interviews a radical professor in Lahore called Changez (Riz Ahmed) who might be involved with the terrorist groups involved in the kidnapping and who is on the radar of the security services. Lincoln hopes that Changez will lead him to the kidnappers.Changez sits for an interview with Lincoln and figures out quickly that Lincoln is involved with the CIA. Changez protests his innocence and explains his life story as a Pakistani immigrant in America, who graduated from a top university and got a plum job in finance.Life was going well for Changez, he has a white American girlfriend, popular with work colleagues but things change after 9/11. Changez suffers from constant humiliation such as being strip searched at the airport, wrongful arrests, racial abuse. He finds other ethnic groups fearful in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.As time goes on Changez questions his identity, his relationship with his girlfriend suffers. During a trip to Istanbul for a hostile takeover, he meets a man who translated his father's poetry fro Urdu to Turkish and has a spiritual awakening that causes him to leave his job and travel to Pakistan to work as a professor. His teaching enlightens his students but also brought him into contact with more shady terrorist sympathisers.The film contained a lot of location shooting. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, A fort in India and some location shooting in Pakistan as well as the USA.The central premise was intriguing but never reaches its full potential. Changez is a man who could had easily switched allegiance from his love of all things American to a Pakistani society who needs to wean off itself from imperialist nations.The resolution was rather ham fisted, tagged on to give the film some urgency and make it more thrilling. It did show elements of thoughtfulness but some of it just felt clumsy.Good performances from Ahmed, Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland.

Riz Ahmed, Liev Schreiber, Kate Hudson, and Kiefer Sutherland star in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," based on the novel of the same name and directed by Mira Nair. In 2011, an American professor in Pakistan is kidnapped. When the U.S. embassy receives a ransom note, it's in the form of a video, demanding the release of detainees and money.An American journalist (Schreiber) who is a CIA informant obtains an interview with a suspect in the kidnapping, one Changez Khan (Ahmed), a professor at the same university.informant in Pakistan, arranges to interview a colleague of Rainer, Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed), who he suspects is involved in the kidnapping. Changez asks to tell his story from the beginning.He comes from a good family, his father a known poet, but money is scarce in his family. Changez wins a scholarship to Princeton and afterward is hired by a valuation firm on Wall Street.Changez soon proves how gifted he is at the job, and his boss (Sutherland) puts him on the fast track for promotion.Meanwhile, Changez meets a photographer, Erica (Hudson) and the two become involved, though she is not yet over the death of her fiancé. They break up after her art show, where he feels betrayed, as she used elements of their relationship.After the World Trade Center falls, things change. Ahmed is strip- searched at the airport and interrogated. He is arrested upon leaving his office one day. He grows a beard, saying it reminds him of where he comes from, and it's no doubt an act of defiance. After refusing to close a publishing house in Istanbul, Changez loses his job and returns to Pakistan. The question is, did he take up arms? After loving America, does he now hate it?One reason Mira Nair made this film was to show another side of Pakistan, that of a vibrant country filled with youth and educated people, not simply a country filled with poverty and violence.It's a thought-provoking film about the effect of terrorism on the innocent, not only in our country but in others as well. Ahmed, who wanted the American dream, becomes a victim of racial profiling, of suspicion, of fear.The point that Ahmed makes is that every person is made up of many qualities, no one is just a criminal, a professor, a terrorist, and there are no simple answers.The movie feels long, it's talky, but the acting is superb and draws you right into the film. When Ahmed goes back to Pakistan for his sister's wedding, he goes into a mosque. Without him speaking, you know he's thinking, maybe back here is where I belong.It's one thing to be a terrorist, to be rooted out and arrested, but to leave a country because you don't feel you belong there any longer and no one wants you there is sad. Alas, it's been going on for centuries with no end in site.

I am not a regular reviewer so please excuse my English writing.Well, yes. A very good "fiction" story. Riz Ahmad did good job. Om Puri sir, excellent as always. The story is so powerful that it really dragged me to IMDb to appreciate it. I love the Qawwali from Coke Studio from the very famous group.Most of the "Pakistani" parts are filmed in India so there are flaws. Let's come to the poor location selection, bad choices of characters and worst dialogs as always in the Hollywood movies made for South Asia. Shabana Aazmi was a huge misfit because the family is a Lahori family but Shabana's Punjabi is not that up to the mark.Secondly, the universities in Pakistan (even the worst ones) don't look like the one shown in the movie. Even if I assume it's a fiction movie, there must me something close to reality. You can check google images of "Pakistani universities".Thirdly, why, when we show people from Pakistan, there are Muslim caps everywhere :). Guys, there are hardly few people in Lahore who wear Muslim caps but I know the director have tried to show the religious extremism but it's not the best way.And Shabana says to Riz on the phone, "Electricity is not available and Eid Mubarak". I can assure that the time shown in the movie, at that time there was hardly any loadshedding in Pakistan. In fact between 1998 - 2008, most of the people forgot about power cuts. Power cuts started from 2008. Even if there is a powercut, a Princeton graduate with a huge salary can't afford a power generator in his house in Lahore :)Riz Khan's acting is good but he recited a very common verse of Iqbal that was wrong. I am sure even a lot of Indians know the correct version.I would say very good writing but poor direction and bad location choices.

This film tells the story of a young man who works at Wall Street as a successful analyst, but his bright future is marred by his Pakistani roots amidst of a turbulent political background."The Reluctant Fundamentalist" has two story lines, one in the present Pakistan, the other the reminisced pursuance of the American dream. They are both powerful stories, engaging and thought provoking. Changez's experience in New York after the attack is very sad, as the country descends into high alert. We see his daily encounter with hate and discrimination, and this drives bright, hard working and honest individuals like Changez's to leave America. He goes back to Pakistan to pursue a Pakistani dream, but his American past still haunts him. The ending hopefully stimulates people's thoughts in this highly emotionally charged subject, as people are prone to be clouded by their emotions when making judgements."The Reluctant Fundamentalist" tells the other side of the story in an engaging manner. I certainly sympathise with Changez, and hope his story will not be repeated in the future.